Up to EU members to open chapters for Serbia's EU integration

Progress in Serbia's European integration depends on the decision of its member countries, the head of the EU delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said on Thursday.

Asked if Brussels would reject Croatian arguments of blocking the opening of the negotiation chapter 23 which deals with judiciary and fundamental rights, Davenport told journalists at a business lunch that the European Commission recommended the opening of chapters 23 and 24 but the final decision will be taken by its member countries.

"European Commission gave its recommendation to open the chapters. It is up to the member countries to bring a decision about the further steps," he said, explaining that the role of the European Commission is to issue a recommendation as well as to estimate whether the country is prepared to open the chapters.

Serbia opened the first of 35 negotiation chapters in mid-December last year in Brussels at an intergovernmental conference, and exchanged with EU negotiating positions concerning Chapter 32 (Financial control) and Chapter 35 (Other issues).

At that point, EU officials announced that in the middle of 2016 the country will also open chapter 23 and chapter 24 (Justice, freedom and security). However, during the meeting of the working group on EU enlargement in Brussels on April 8, Croatia did not assent to opening Chapter 23 in EU-Serbia negotiations, which resulted in removing the point from the agenda and postponing the discussion.

Croatia gave the "green light" to Serbia with demands that its neighbor changes the law that defines the jurisdiction of the Serbian war crimes court over the territory of former Yugoslavian republics as well as to guarantee that Croatian minority will be represented in Serbian parliament.

However, Croatia's demands were rejected by the European Commission, according to Serbian Beta News Agency and Croatia's Jutarnji List newspaper.

Davenport said that EU has long-term plans for enlargement and that governments of countries who wish to join EU should get the support for that from citizens in their countries.

Source: XINHUA