On Tuesday 14 May, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, called for the next Commission to be “an Enlargement Commission”.
“The next Commission will have to put all its work and effort to get the new members into the European Union”, he explained from Belgrade, alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. In particular, he hoped that Serbia would become a member of the EU before the end of the next mandate, in 2029.
According to the Commissioner, the EU is in the process of “creating all the tools” and developing “all the impetus required for the next Commission to be able to deliver on enlargement”, he added, citing the implementation of the growth plan for the Balkan countries. On this subject, Mr Várhelyi announced that the first payments to Serbia would be arriving shortly, subject to completion of the reform programme.
“It is crucial not only that this growth plan continues, but that the whole region adopts a common position to implement it”, warned the Commissioner, adding that the growth plan would not work if the region did not work together, “because the common regional market is the backbone of it”.
Mr Várhelyi insisted on reforms, hoping that with the new Serbian government, the pace of reforms would be “even more consistent and (the) results even quicker than before”.
“It is also clear that we need democratic reforms to move forward, that we need to advance the rule of law, where all reforms will also be of paramount importance for our Member States to move forward in the enlargement process”, he added, also emphasising the importance of Belgrade aligning itself more closely with EU foreign policy.
On this point, Mr Vučić hoped that this non-alignment would not be an obstacle to his country’s progress towards the EU. According to the Serbian President, his country will open Cluster 3 of the EU accession negotiation chapters by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)