“I think that there is a danger that first chapters in negotiations with Serbia on joining the European Union won’t be open in the course of this year, however that is not related to Serbia’s foreign policy in the context of crisis in Ukraine, instead it is in connection to the blockage in implementation of the Brussels agreement with Kosovo,” said senior advisor of the Council for the Democratization Policy in Berlin Bodo Veber to Danas when asked whether a slowdown is possible on Serbia’s European journey unless Belgrade does not harmonize its policy with the Brussels, that is unless it introduces sanctions against Moscow due to Ukraine.
He reminded that screening of the chapter 31, which refers to foreign and security policy, had started in mid-July, and it ‘was not planned for that chapter to be open until the end of 2014.”.
“Delay of the opening of the first negotiation chapters for the next year, as I see, objectively is threatened by Kosovo and almost complete frizzing of the implementation of the Brussels agreement. It is possible that the implementation of the agreement won’t be defrosted until the end of this year. One should be reminded that the decision was made, due to Berlin and London’s insistent, that the chapter 35, which refers to Kosovo and was introduced in the negotiation framework of Serbia’s accession, should be the first one to open and the last one to be closed,” stressed Veber.
German analyst pointed out that Belgrade had started to complain that Serbia is in danger to become a victim of the crisis related to the creation of the new government in Pristina, “what is not mistaken, however it has been forgotten that Belgrade was the first one to start frizzing the implementation of the Brussels agreement”.
“SNS quickly went on to call early elections strait after the first inter-governmental conference with the EU took place,” explained Veber.
With regard to announced visit of the First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Ivica Dacic to Germany, Veber said that he is not expecting that Serbian FM could hear much of new messages. “Minister Dacic will most certainly hear what Berlin expects from Belgrade in terms of the conflict between the West and Russia. That is something that was partly mentioned by the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in his recent interview to CNN, that is that – tolerating Serbian policy ‘and EU and Russia’ for Germany and the rest of the Union is acceptable, not as a sort of expression of the foreign affairs neutrality, but in the context of something for what Belgrade has clearly opted for – European integrations of Serbia,” concluded Veber.
The OSCE amongst the topics
According to Bodo Veber, German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will certainly be eager to hear from Ivica Dacic about how Serbia intends to preside over the OSCE next year. “That topic is particularly important after many talks between Serbian and Russian officials, and announcements on intensified cooperation between the foreign affairs ministries of Serbia and Russia during the visit paid to Belgrade in June by the Russian FM Sergey Lavrov,” said Veber.
