Belgian Embassy: There Is a Chance for Serbia to a Open New Cluster Depending on Its Progress

Belgian Ambassador to Serbia Cathy Buggenhout (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Belgian Ambassador to Serbia Cathy Buggenhout, whose country is taking over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) from Spain, said in Belgrade, on Dec. 15, that Serbia had a chance of opening Cluster 3 in the next six months.

Cluster 3 in Serbia’s accession negotiations with the Union includes: Chapter 10 – Digital transformation and the media, Chapter 16 – Taxation. Chapter 17 – Economic and monetary policy, Chapter 19 – Social policy and employment, Chapter 20 – Enterprise and industrial policy, Chapter 25 – Science and research, Chapter 26 – Education and culture and Chapter 29 – Customs union.

“There is a chance and we expect Serbia to do many things. Cluster 3 depends on progress in the near future,” the ambassador told reporters ahead of a panel, From Spain to Belgium: The Return of the Presidency to the Heart of the EU. The goal of Belgium’s presidency, according to the ambassador, is to “bring to the legislative cycle to an end” by European elections at the end of next year, and to “form a strategic framework for the next European Commission.”

The Belgian diplomat also said that all 27 members of the EU fully supported the policy of enlargement. “All 27 members are fully committed to enlargement, there is no doubt about it. Every country is joining the EU according to its own merits, and at the pace that it wants. Yes, we fully support EU enlargement to the Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova,” she said.