New EU chapters if Belgrade - Pristina talks resume in June (N1, Danas)
A possible meeting between Kosovo’s and Serbia’s presidents under the European Union’s auspices by June 25 could help Belgrade open new chapters in its accession talks with Brussels, a daily reported on Friday.
Serbia’s Minister for European Integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, told Danas daily she would present the country’s activities thus far regarding the chapters 23 and 24 related to the rule of law, next week.
The latest European Commission’s report said Serbia made some progress in the accession talks with the EU but failed to improve in the rule of law and in normalising the relations with Kosovo.
The dialogue was briefly staled and Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Hardinaj said on Thursday that “we felt that it was useless to sit at the table when the energy agreement is not the first ion agenda.”
He added that Belgrade and Brussels wanted to make the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) the top priority.
In the meantime, Belgrade and Pristina involved in a bitter rhetoric exchange over latest statements and incidents.
However, diplomatic sources told Danas that if Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo’s counterpart Hashim Thaci met with the EU Policy and Security chief Federica Mogherini before June 25, the block could see that as a positive development when deciding on the opening of new negotiating chapters with Belgrade.
Joksimovic said that the decision on some new chapters depended on “a general attitude toward the enlargement to the Western Balkans and on some technical details.
She added that “it would be positive if we open three chapters, but if there are two, that will anyway be significant progress for Serbia in its European integration process.”
Since the opening of the first two chapters in December 2015, Serbia has opened a total of 12 out of 35 and closed two.
The most challenging are the chapters dealing with the rule of law and 35 which relates to the normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Kosovo.