Medjak: Serbia Behaves as if It Has Forgotten It Is Negotiating with EU

Vladimir Medjak (Beta/Media Center Beograd)

European Movement in Serbia vice-president Vladimir Medjak said on May 20 that after six years of negotiations with the EU Serbia is not even halfway through the process and that it is behaving as if it has forgotten it is negotiating on EU membership.

“We have a serious delay of three years with chapters 23 and 24, as well as with the change of the Constitution. There are nine more chapters for which the opening conditions have not been met as yet. We cannot say that our part of the job is over and that now it is up to Brussels to act. The fact that we have not submitted the negotiating positions for chapters 10 and 28 even four years after we had been invited to do so shows that European integrations are not a priority,” Medjak told VOICE.

According to him, by holding an on-line EU-Western Balkans Summit on May 6, during the coronavirus pandemic, Brussels had sent a clear message that enlargement is still on its agenda.

“The problem is that from the way Serbia behaves it appears as if we have forgotten we are negotiating,” Medjak said and recalled that the European Commission had said back in 2011 that Serbia could meet all conditions within five years if it applied all its capacities to the purpose.

“EU membership is being presented here as something we are forced to accept. We even had statements by some ministers that we have to join the EU because the reason tells us it is good, while our heart is on the other side,” Medjak said.