While domestic analysts believe the talks’ resumption was an important step in the negotiations, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said that a favorable outcome of the dialogue “can contribute to chapters being opened this year.”
The Belgrade train is on track to Brussels, but the speed of this train depends on the success of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
That is how David McAllister, EP rapporteur for Serbia, described the speed of Serbia’s EU integration. Hahn also pointed out that the Kosovo dialogue was “the cornerstone of accession,” but did not specify when the first chapters might be opened.
“We should bear in mind that he was very cautious when speaking about the opening of chapters,” said analyst Bosko Jaksic, and added: “If I’m not mistaken Hahn said it could happen this year. On that basis, based on the fact that many things agreed on have not been realized and that many things on the agenda of the dialogue with Pristina are yet to come up, like the difficult property issue, I would conclude that the time is not right for excessive optimism.”
Aleksandra Nikolic, director of the Center for Foreign Policy, says the initialing of the agreement on the judiciary in Kosovo was “a huge step, because it means the elimination of parallel institutions,” but stressed that the speed of the opening of chapters “does not only depend on Serbia.”
According to her, “that kind of decision” will be made in the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose focus is not the Balkans.
“The Ukrainian crisis is consuming some sort of capacity and space for reflection of what is happening in the Western Balkans. So at this point the most current is the achievement and remediation of peace in Ukraine, but I believe space will open very soon for thinking about when and at what moment to open the negotiations with Serbia. I think that the climate at this time is much more positive than it was even a month or two ago. Therefore preconditions, it seems to me, have been met for the negotiation chapters to start to be opened as soon as possible” – said Joksimovic.
She added that “experience shows that the most difficult chapters should be opened first to leave enough room for them to also be closed in an appropriate space.”
For Serbia, this is certainly chapter 35, insisted on the most by Germany. This chapter includes discussions on the progress in the implementation of the Brussels agreement, which was signed by Belgrade and Pristina, and deals with the normalization of relations between Serbia and the southern Serbian province.
