Varhelyi Presents Document On Implementing New EU Enlargement Methodology On Serbia, Montenegro

Oliver Varhelyi (Beta/European Commission/Dati Bendo)

Serbia and Montenegro will not be able to close new chapters in the EU accession negotiations before they fulfill all the transitional milestones in the rule of law. That is the key element of the "non-paper" document about the implementation of the new EU enlargement methodology, which Radio Free Europe has gained insight into.

The European enlargement commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, presented the document to the EU member countries' ambassadors on March 17.

"In keeping with the revised methodology, no further chapters should be closed before all the transitional milestones in the two rule of law chapters are reached, corrective measures should be considered in case of problems that would appear during the negotiations, and current rule of law action plans will remain in effect, i.e. it will not be necessary to adopt new road maps," the document reads.

Furthermore, after the fulfilling of the transitional milestones from chapters 23 and 24 and the setting of the milestones for closing, it will be necessary to update the action plans, which will also enable these two chapters to take into consideration the specific issues that have been identified regarding the functioning of democratic institutions and the reform of public governance.