A decision on a snap parliamentary election does not depend on leaders of the EU, but solely on Serbian politicians, and the EU is convinced that Serbia will stay the reform course and remain committed to resolving the Kosovo issue, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn says.
In an interview to Belgrade-based daily Danas, Hahn says that he will propose opening an initial negotiation chapter in late 2015, noting that Serbia has no yet finished work on Chapters 23 and 24.
Serbia has finalized the implementation of the key agreements with Kosovo, as part of the normalization process that Chapter 35 deals with. This constitutes a key breakthrough when it comes to the normalization process, and I hope that this will pave the way for reaching a consensus among member states concerning the opening of chapters, as soon as this year, he says.
Asked about the issue of refugees, Hahn says that the EU is watching the situation closely.
We have earmarked EUR 390,000 as emergency assistance, including humanitarian aid, as was the case last year during the floods. In addition to this, the bloc has allocated or is about to allocate around EUR 8.2 million so as to expand the monitoring of borders, strengthen the asylum system and increase accommodation capacities for asylum seekers in Serbia, he specifies.
