Grubjesic: Economic Plan for the Region Essentially More Important than Opening Chapters of the Acquis

Suzana Grubjesic (BETA/Medija Centar Beograd)

As regards EU integration in 2020, Serbia should receive a clearer picture on how the EU enlargement package will look like and also strengthen its capacities required for implementing the necessary reforms, Suzana Grubjesic of the Foreign Policy Center has said.

In parallel, it is important to resume the dialogue with Pristina toward achieving a sustainable settlement which would energize the entire region to move out of limbo in which it has been for some time now and where the EU is not the only player, Grubjesic has told EURACTIV.rs and BETA.

Speaking about Serbia’s EU integration process in 2019, Grubjesic said it had obviously slowed down, adding that no one should be happy with the pace of progress, but the opponents of Serbia’s EU membership.

According to Grubjesic, reasons for the slowdown are multiple, including “the disunity among the Member States on the enlargement process, preoccupation with the EU problems, the absence of a formal dialogue with Pristina, and insufficient progress in the rule of law.”

“A phased, horizontal integration and the access to EU structural funds before a formal membership is what could on the one hand soften negative views on the enlargement process of many EU Member States, and on the other hand, could enable candidate countries to take a more active engagement in the EU policies,” Grubjesic noted.

According to her, more important than opening chapters of the acquis is a substantial economic plan for the entire region along with financial support through structural funds, which would finally provide some benefits also to the citizens.