The headquarters of the European Commission (EU/Jennifer Jacquemart)
The European Commission (EC) is working to open a new cluster in the European Union’s accession negotiations with Serbia, but cannot be sure if and when this will be possible, a senior EC official in charge of the enlargement process said in Brussels, on June 17.
The official spoke at a briefing for accredited journalists, after the Commission recommended that Ukraine and Moldova be granted the status of candidate countries, underlining that “discussions are underway on Serbia’s alignment or non-alignment with the EU’s measures and I can’t say whether it will have consequences on the decisions that need to be made or not.”
The EC senior official was answering a journalist who asked if the Union would consistently implement a clause under its new enlargement methodology, according to which a candidate for EU membership can be forced back to the beginning of a cluster if flaws are detected in the accession negotiations, and whether the clause would be applied in Serbia's case for its refusal to join the Union’s sanctions against Russia.
The official explained that “the mechanism to send a candidate back to the beginning of a chapter, or a cluster, for their failure to implement the necessary reforms, is an ‘emergency break,’ and it is yet to be verified” if it should be used right now. “It is important to note that late last year we opened a cluster on ‘green transition” and the environment, which was a big step for Serbia, as it had to meet some important requirements. We are now working to open other clusters and I cannot say if and when this will happen,” the EC official said.
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