National Convention on EU: New Serbian Gov't Should Re-establish Team for Talks with EU

European union

The National Convention on the EU expects the new Serbian government's priority to be the European integration process and Serbia's membership in the EU.

"We expect the new prime minister to explicitly state in their first speech in parliament Serbia's future membership in the EU as the key national interest, and to propose all the other government measures and policies through that prism and that key national interest," National Convention Coordinator Natasa Dragojlovic told EurActiv Serbia and BETA on Sept. 21.

Due to the institutional framework required for the negotiating process to be conducted successfully and wrapped up at least in 2025, as planned by the EU strategy of enlargement in the Western Balkans which is the valid document Serbia should be mindful of, it is important to re-establish the negotiating team, Dragojlovic underscored.

She recalled that Serbia had not had a negotiating team chief since Tanja Miscevic's transfer to a different position a year ago, when as Serbia's candidate she became the deputy secretary general of the Regional Cooperation Council. Dragojlovic further said that 2020 was the first year in which Serbia had not opened a single chapter in the negotiations with the EU, while Germany, which was presiding over the EU in the second half of this year, had very high expectations of Serbia in the areas of rule of law and political criteria.