Picula: Decision to Open Clusters Will Show Whether Interests or Principles Are Stronger

Tonino Picula (BETAPHOTO/European Parliament/Philippe BUISSIN)

The European Parliament’s new rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, said on Oct. 25 that a decision by the European Union to open a new cluster in accession negotiations with Serbia in December should make it clear if it was the interests of member states or principles that prevailed in the bloc.

In a written interview with the Radio Free Europe (RFE), Picula said that it was not impossible that the Union would open a new cluster in negotiations with Serbia in December, despite Belgrade’s refusal to introduce sanctions against Russia, since Hungary presided over the Union until the end of the year and Brussels was positive about enlargement.

“The idea is that in the process of reinvigorating the policy of enlargement, opening new negotiating clusters with Albania and approving national agendas within the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, those who have been stagnating for a while should be given an opportunity to continue negotiations as well. On the other hand, some have opposed this idea. We should wait and see what will prevail – the interests of individual member states, or principles,” Picula, a member of the Socialist Democratic Party of Croatia, said.

When asked why the EU had been tolerating Serbia’s good relations with both Russia and the West, Picula, who was Croatian foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, said that Brussels, as a rule, would not enter a conflict without very strong reasons. “Besides, the EU is a union of states, not a state that they share, so it is never easy to make a decision that might suspend relations with a state. The likely belief is that Belgrade, regardless of close ties with Russia and China, has not crossed a red line in protecting the strategic interests of the bloc,” Picula explained.