The European Commission and the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) submitted on Friday to the EU Council a proposal to amend and complete the framework of negotiations with Serbia for its membership in the bloc.<\/p>\n
The changes in chapter 35 relate to the inclusion as a binding condition for Serbia and the implementation of the agreements it has reached so far with Kosovo in the dialogue mediated by the European bloc, sources within the EU have confirmed for Radio Free Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n This proposal was submitted two days later than the deadline given by the member countries in the meeting of December 12 last year, when they requested that the Commission and the EEAS submit the proposal before the end of January this year.<\/span><\/p>\n The request to formally change the conditions in Chapter 35 for Serbia comes after the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Bernabic, said in December that her country would not implement all the agreements it agreed with Kosovo.<\/span><\/p>\n After reaching the Agreement in Brussels in February last year and the annex for its implementation in Ohrid in March, the European Union insisted that these agreements are legally binding for the parties, despite the fact that they have not been signed.<\/span><\/p>\n In the case of Serbia, according to EU officials, the implementation will also become formally binding by being included as a specific condition in the framework of its negotiations for membership in the bloc.<\/span><\/p>\n But, for more than ten months, the EU had not changed this framework. Therefore, in the conclusions they drew from the meeting of the Council of General Affairs, the ministers of the member countries requested that this happen as soon as possible and that the Commission and the EEAS make their proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n “The Council requests from the Commission and from the high representative that urgently, before the end of January 2024, they propose and fulfill the conditions from chapter 35 of the membership negotiations for Serbia” it was said in these conclusions. They were later supported by the heads of member states at the EU summit in Brussels.<\/span><\/p>\n Chapter 35 of the membership negotiations, which is called “other issues” in the case of Serbia, also includes the normalization of relations with Kosovo. This chapter was one of the first to be opened in December 2015, in order to convey through it the progress towards the normalization of relations between the two countries.<\/span><\/p>\n The European Union has always sent a message to Belgrade and Pristina that their journey towards membership in the bloc goes through progress in the normalization of relations between themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n The EU Council must now vote on the proposal of the Commission and the EEAS for the amendment and completion of Chapter 35 for Serbia.<\/span><\/p>\n Some diplomatic sources within the EU have said that the delays in the submission of the proposal occurred due to some objections made by Oliver Verhelyi, the Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood of the EU. The EEAS was more interested in this happening as soon as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n When in Ohrid, North Macedonia, on March 18, agreement was reached on the annex for the implementation of the Basic Agreement, among other things, it was said that immediately after this agreement, work would begin on changing the conditions in Chapter 35 for talks with Serbia, which would it also included the obligation for it to implement the Agreement and its annex.<\/span><\/p>\n The insistence of the member countries for this to happen as soon as possible was done to speed up the process, as some diplomats estimated that Verhelyi was delaying the work in this direction.<\/span><\/p>\n “Despite the clear conclusions from two documents from the EU’s highest level, Varhelyi stood against and blocked this proposal until the last moment,” an EU official told Radio Free Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the same sources, Varhelyi was pressured by the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and by some of the bloc’s remaining members. In some cases, EU diplomats have said that Varhelyi is following the position of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had also proposed that he be a commissioner from this country in the executive of the European Union.<\/span><\/p>\n The European Parliament also criticized Varhely. In a resolution from January 2023, an impartial investigation into the way Varhelyi exercises his position was also requested, because the European parliamentarians suspected that he was violating the ethical rules of the European Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n The decision for changes in chapter 35 for Serbia, like every decision in the EU enlargement process, is approved with the agreement of all member countries.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the case of Kosovo, the obligations for the implementation of the agreements with the Series will be included in the agenda of the special group for normalization, since Kosovo does not yet have the status of a candidate country for EU membership.<\/span><\/p>\n The EU insists that the statement of the representative of the EU for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, about the agreement about the agreement has the force of a legally binding agreement, even though it has not been signed.<\/span><\/p>\n The EU continues to state that it is disappointed that neither side has so far made adequate progress in implementing the obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European Commission and the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) submitted on Friday to the EU Council a proposal to amend and complete the framework of negotiations with Serbia for its membership in the bloc. The changes in chapter 35 relate to the inclusion as a binding condition for Serbia and the implementation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":65516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,1803],"tags":[150,243,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n