Serbian authorities are expecting that the candidacy for the EU membership will be recommended at the Council of ministers meeting at the end of February. Nevertheless, those are just expectations, but are they realistic?
Last December, the European Council set out clear and achievable conditions for Serbia to be granted candidate status at the end of this month. Of course, it requires serious efforts to fulfil them, but it is not unrealistic to expect that Serbia is making those efforts.
What conditions does Serbia need to fulfil in order to become a candidate for EU membership?
The Council will examine whether Serbia has continued to show credible commitment and has achieved further progress in moving forward with the implementation in good faith of agreements reached in the dialogue with Pristina, including on Integrated Border Management, has reached an agreement on inclusive regional cooperation, and has actively cooperated to enable EULEX and KFOR to execute their mandates.
Do you expect that Serbia, beside the candidacy, will get a date for the beginning of pre accession negotiations?
The next logical step after achievement of candidate status is indeed the opening of accession negotiations. But Serbia will have first to make sufficient progress in meeting the key priority outlined in the Commission’s opinion on its membership application, and take further steps to improve its relations with Kosovo. The Commission stands ready to recommend opening of accession negotiations as soon as sufficient progress will have been achieved.
In your opinion, has Serbia made any progress since the last European Council meeting in December 2011?
Regarding the dialogue with Pristina, there has been some valuable progress. The entry into force of the agreement on freedom of movement on 26 December was a significant step forward. Before that, work had started on civil registries and since September the acceptance of customs stamps allows a regular although nascent flow of goods from Kosovo to enter Serbia. This is a good start and I encourage all parties concerned to invest further efforts in building up progress in implementation.
What does the candidacy mean for Serbia and its citizens?
For the people of Serbia it would be a strong signal that the EU wants to welcome them as fellow EU-citizens. It will also represent an important political signal that Serbia is moving to the next phase of its European integration process. Together with the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which should soon enter into force, candidate status will move the relations between the EU and Serbia to a higher and deeper level. From an economic perspective, candidate status is a significant milestone which will help to attract more foreign investments and create jobs in Serbia. As we said in our evaluation already last year Serbia has remarkably intensified its reforms and taken great strides in its European integration process and I hope the dynamics of the reform efforts will continue.