Fabrizi: I Expect Serbia’s Progress toward EU by Year’s End

Sem Fabrizi

Sem Fabrizi, the outgoing head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, has stated that he expected new clusters, i.e. groups of chapters to be opened in Serbia’s negotiations on EU membership.

“At a conference in June we saw a positive message, reforms are resuming, Serbia is intensifying the pace of reforms and new clusters should be opened by the end of the year. That is a possibility, and this is where the focus ought to be. I am certain that by the end of the year Serbia will move forward,” Fabrizi told the RTS public service in the evening on July 27.

Speaking about the criticism involving reforms in the rule of law, media freedom and fight against organized crime and corruption, Fabrizi pointed out that these are the priority areas. “They are the most difficult to achieve, and for that time is needed. The new enlargement methodology offers a possibility to make them easier and speedier, because the monitoring of progress through clusters is much simpler,” Fabrizi said.

He added that he was convinced that Serbia’s progress will be more visible in the second half of the year and that this will be reflected in the European Commission’s report.

Fabrizi also said that the dialogue with Pristina is a critical element in Serbia’s EU accession and pointed out that Brussels is doing everything to make it successful. “The latest round of the dialogue was probably the most difficult of all. The two sides have to be committed to it [the talks]. The dialogue is a critical element for the region’s stability and Serbia’s joining the EU. There is a great interest for the dialogue to be successful and the EU is doing its best to make that happen,” Fabrizi said.

Fabrizi will be succeeded in the post by Emanuele Giaufret, currently the head of the EU Delegation to Israel.