Austria, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is hosting the 9th EU-Serbia intergovernmental conference on December 10.
Despite slow progress on joining the EU so far, particularly as Serbia has been widely regarded as a frontrunner for membership, Belgrade is hoping new chapters in accession negotiations could be opened.
The Serbian Minister for European Integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, said the conference could lead to the opening of chapters 9, 17 and 18 specifically, which relate to financial services, economic and monetary policy, and statistics.
“We believe that on the basis of concrete and visible steps…when it comes to action plans and reforms in the field of the rule of law, there will be plenty of quality materials, that an important package of the chapters will be opened by the end of December,” she told the Parliamentary Board for EU integration on October 29, FoNet news agency reported.