Even in case that Belgrade had implemented any other detail from the Brussels Agreement, I am not convinced that it would be enough for opening negotiations with the EU, said Laslo Varga, deputy chairperson of the Serbian parliament’s Committee for European integrations.
With that regard the question emerges why Serbia didn’t ask additional explanations from the EU. Paper’s well informed source close to the government circles claims that the question was already asked, but that ‘they keep changing and boosting conditions’ and setting ‘almost impossible conditions for opening chapters’, with the remark the one can’t even imagine how it’s going to be during negotiations and what conditions will be set for the closure of chapters. It was claimed form months by Serbian authorities that Belgrade is not to be blamed for non-implementation of the Brussels Agreement since there was no government in Pristina, However, the question is whether more could be done or was it only an excuse?
“In theory, for sure, Serbia could do more. However, if Serbia had implemented any other detail from the Brussels Agreement, I am not convinced that it would be enough for opening the negotiations. And, in no case it could implement all from the agreement because of the lack of the counterpart,” said Varga.
But, there are people who think that the blame is also on Serbian side. Dusan Janjic from the Forum for Ethnic Relations said to Radio Free Europe that the state could do more in the meantime, but it did not. It could, for example, amend some legal provisions, certain administrative instructions, and adjust institutional operation in certain areas. Concretely, Janjic said that Serbia didn’t bring a range of regulations on veterinary control at customs and that Belgrade didn’t do all it could do with regard to creation of the Association/Community of Serb municipalities.
Earlier this year the head of the Serbian team in negotiations with the EU, Tanja Miscevic, explained that neither Serbian nor the European Commission know in which way will normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina be monitored in the scope of chapter 35, but said that many things will be more clarified during screenings.
Problem is more complex if it is known that chapter 35 is practically spreading to all other chapters. Preliminary agreement, according to Varga, is that all political issues in relation with Kosovo are addressed within the chapter 35, whereas issues with regard to Kosovo will appear and in other chapters, where, for example, talks would refer to citizens, territory, Hague aspects, and practically everywhere where there are other issues related with that topic.
Chapter 35, which was in case of other states reserved for so called other issues addressed in the end of negotiations, turns out to be completely of different nature in our case. Even though in the Brussels pointed out that they don’t have experience with such schedule during accession negotiations, it was clearly stressed last summer that chapter 35 (along with chapters 23 and 24) will be unpacked at the very beginning of negotiations, and that it will be the dominant chapter for following normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
