European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Monday the European Union would not accept new members who have open issues with neighbours, TV N1 reported.

Hahn told the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is important and added that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is doing a brave job in the dialogue on normalization of Serbia-Kosovo relations.

The Commissioner warned that progress in the dialogue does not mean that official Belgrade should stop reforms, especially in regard to rule of law.

Hahn said that Belgrade had missed the 2016 deadline to meet some of the rule of law criteria. It’s important for Serbia to understand that both these things have to be resolved, he added.

Hahn said that institutional reforms and the enlargement of the European Union should be parallel processes leading to stronger EU.

We can’t wait for years to reach an agreement within the EU before continuing the pre-accession negotiations, he said adding that the European Commission would draw up a proposal by next autumn on which decisions can be taken by a majority vote and which have to be taken unanimously.