While visiting Belgrade on Thursday 8 June, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn announced the opening of two negotiation chapters with Serbia very soon.
"I expect two negotiation chapters to be opened in Brussels in the coming days", he said at a press conference with Serbia's new president and former prime minister Alexander Vucic. These are reportedly Chapters 7 (on rights and intellectual property) and 29 (on customs union). According to the Serbian government, these chapters could be opened in Luxembourg on 20 June.
Adopting the common market concept in Trieste
Hahn also spoke about economic cooperation between the Balkans countries (Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania). He would like the concept of a regional economic area to be approved at the Balkans summit in Trieste, Italy, on 12 July. "I firmly believe that the Trieste summit (...) will approve the concept of the Western Balkans regional economic area", he said, adding that if the participating states so wanted, this area could be achieved in a year.
Hahn also denied that this market "would distract" these countries from the EU, saying he believed that the opposite would be true and that it was a very important step for preparing accession. "This will prepare the region for its future integration, including economic integration", he said, adding that this would be the first step towards the single market.
"In the region, we see a growth rate twice as high as in the EU and I believe that there is still a lot of unexploited potential", Hahn said, stating that this market of 20 million consumers was attractive for investors and would boost the economies of all countries in the region. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)