Jadranka Joksimovic expressed the belief on Thursday that Serbia will open the first negotiating chapter by the end of the year.

Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of European Integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, expressed the belief on Thursday that Serbia will open the first negotiating chapter by the end of the year, noting that this step would serve as an additional encouragement to Serbia's efforts by the European Commission.

Joksimovic told Tanjug that Serbia is ready for opening of Chapter 32 on financial control and has already prepared its negotiating position and sent it to Brussels, so that from the technical standpoint, there are no problems for opening the chapter in December already.

’’Of course, it should not be kept secret, there are some countries which somehow brought the opening of Chapter 32 in connection with the obvious progress in the implementation of the Brussels agreement which is monitored in Chapter 35’’, she said.

She said that for its part, Serbia has done a lot despite the fact that the Pristina government has not been constituted yet and that Pristina could not take part in the political part of the dialogue.

’’We believe that it would not be fair to delay the opening of Chapter 32 over Chapter 35 because we have done all in our power’’, Joksimovic said.

Commenting on Chapter 23 and 24 which cover rule of law and security, the minister said that there is a recommendation according to which the political chapters are always among the first to open, and added that Serbia has completed the action plans for the chapters which were qualified as positive in Brussels.

’’Serbia is ready to open Chapter 32’’, Joksimovic said and added that Chapters 23 and 24 should open in early 2015.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele stated that there is a chance that Belgrade and Brussels may cross an important threshold before the year ends and open the first two of 35 policy chapters which Serbia must address to join the EU.

In an interview for Wall Street Journal, Fuele said that the chapters dealing with regional affairs (Chapter 35) and financial controls (Chapter 32) are most likely to be opened first.