Brnabic: Non-Opening of Cluster 3 a Big Disgrace for the EU

Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Serbian National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic has criticized the European Union's attitude toward Serbia, calling the non-opening of Cluster 3 in the accession talks "a big disgrace" for the authorities in Brussels.

In an appearance on Euronews Serbia late on Dec. 25, Brnabic said the European Commission had always been fair to Serbia, but that there were some member states who had additional demands.

"When we had a debate on the annual EC report on Serbia's progress at a parliament sitting, imagine that, for the fifth time in a row it is said that Serbia has completed everything and met the technical requirements for opening cluster 3, with an appeal to the member states to open it. And when you open cluster 3, it contains eight chapters, five of which we already opened earlier, and provisionally closed two. Therefore, it is about opening three new chapters. And now you can imagine what a success and what a supposed tectonic step toward the EU that is. So, complete nonsense - really, pure technical nonsense," said Brnabic.

She also said the responsibility for the absence of progress did not lay only with the authorities, alluding to the activities of Serbia's civil society.

"Serbia is also specific, as there is no other country in the region where you have people who run to Brussels, Strasbourg, Berlin or The Hague every other day to complain about their own country, begging for processes not to be opened... The biggest responsibility lies with the authorities. But if you have a civil society that tells you: 'I won't be a part of it,' then you can't fulfill that," said Brnabic.