Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nemanja Starovic (Photo: printscreen/youtube)
The Serbian minister for European integration, Nemanja Starovic, stated on July 20 that he believed Serbia was close to opening Cluster 3 in the EU accession negotiations, but that not everything was in its hands in that process.
“I am not in a position to give promises, because we never ‘hold all the cards’. It is necessary to establish full consensus of all member states,” Starovic told TV Prva. He added that Cluster 3 was important, but that it represented, in his words, just one step in the membership negotiations.
“It holds great symbolic value because we received the green light for it three years ago. It is one of many steps and we are carrying out reform processes over a broad spectrum,” Starovic stated. He said that particular attention was being paid on matters that bring concrete benefits to the citizens, like Serbia’s joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and the abolishing of roaming tariffs.
As for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Starovic said that it could not resume before the assistant director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Igor Popovic, is released from custody. “From the moment Albin Kurti took over the transitional institutions in Pristina, the dialogue has become an empty shell, without real content and effect on the ground,” Starovic stated, adding that Kurti was committed “solely to undertaking unilateral actions.”
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