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“The EU-Serbia intergovernmental conference will not be held in this period, as there is no agreement on the opening of any chapter, due to the assessment of several member states on insufficient progress in the field of rule of law,” said the Council of The EU.
Although there was an expectation that Chapter 2 on the freedom of movement of workers, which was ready for opening for a long time, could be opened in December, this did not happen.
The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Bulgaria did not give the green light to Chapter 2, citing shortcomings and delays in rule of law reforms and a recent annual report on the European Commission, diplomatic sources said.
This decision means that, for the first time since the beginning of the accession negotiations, Serbia will not open any negotiating chapter for a year.
According to the rules of negotiations between Serbia and the EU, progress in chapters 23 and 24 on the rule of law determines the pace of progress in all other chapters, and member states can slow down or even suspend negotiations in your set if there is no progress in these key areas.
In the course of negotiations so far, which started in January 2014, Serbia has opened 18 chapters out of a total of 35. Last year, two chapters were opened, the last time in December 2019, Chapter 4 on free movement of capital.
Next year, Serbia should carry out negotiations according to the new enlargement methodology, which foresees that the negotiating chapters will be grouped into six thematic units instead of 35 negotiating chapters.
Belgrade hopes that the European Commission will give more precise form to how the new methodology will be applied to Serbia, which has already opened 18 chapters.
