RTS: No consent within EU on opening new chapters with Serbia in June

EK, EU zastave
Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP

The European Union member states did not give the green light to Serbia to open new clusters in the accession negotiations with the bloc this month but agreed on holding an intergovernmental conference to present new methodology in the talks and next steps in the process, Serbia’s state RTS TV reported, quoting sources from Brussels.

The new enlargement methodology groups chapters into six thematic clusters, and cluster four, whose opening has been announced, deals with transport policy, energy, environment and trans-European networks.

The decision to hold the political inter-governmental ‘explanatory’ conference seems like a compromise in a sign of support of Belgrade to continue with reforms that could lead to new clusters being open at some future meeting, RTS said.

The sources told RTS that the European Commission (EC) advocated the opening of clusters three and four on June 22, arguing Serbia showed results and that the opening would encourage further improvement in the area of the rule of law.

However, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Croatia and Bulgaria maintained more time and concrete results were needed for opening new clusters. Some countries also insisted on Serbia’s insufficient compliance with the EU foreign and security policy.

Keeping in mind the EC view and strong support of some EU member states for opening new clusters, the EU will try to encourage Belgrade after 18 months without any chapter opened, RTS reported.

The EU opened accession talks with Serbia in January 2014. Out of 35 chapters, Belgrade opened 18 and temporarily closed two.