Serbia to prepare to open another 5 chapters in EU negotiations by the end of March

By the end of March, Serbia will be ready to open another five chapters in the accession negotiations with the European Union, the head of the negotiation team of Serbia, Tanja Miscevic, said on March 13.

At the conference on the opening of Chapter 30, she specified that one of the chapters would be Chapter 17, Economic & Monetary Policy, which will be prepared by the end of the month.

Discussing Chapter 30, External Relations, which was opened in December, Miscevic said that several video conferences would be held with EU representatives for the purpose of getting informed about the expectations regarding the fulfillment of the requirements for the closing of this chapter.

Miscevic reminded that Serbia had been given two basic criteria for the closing of Chapter 30 – membership in the World Trade Organization and the preparation of an action plan for the harmonization with the EU legal framework.

The World Trade Organization counts both the EU and all its individual states as its members, and each instance of enlargement therefore requires the new EU member to also become a WTO member, Miscevic said and warned that it was still unclear what the action plan should contain and how specific it should be. She added that they were waiting for a clarification of each of those questions.

Miscevic said that Serbia needed to prove it was capable of acting like a member and added that she believed that such an estimate required at least a year.

Reminding that the framework date for the accession of the countries of the Western Balkans is 2025, Miscevic pointed out that it meant that all negotiations needed to end by 2023, as it takes a year and a half to two years for all EU members and Serbia to ratify all the necessary documents and for a referendum on the accession to the Union to be organized.

We don't have too much time to meet the requirements and complete the negotiations about the WTO membership, Miscevic warned.

Ministarstvo za evropske integracije Republike Srbije

Tanja Miscevic

Chapter 30

Chapter 17

Economic and Monetary Policy

External Relations

World Trade Organization

WTO

action plan for harmonization with EU legal framework

European integration

EU membership

accession to the EU

negotiations with the EU

opening of chapters in negotiations about the accession to the European Union