Ambassadors of the European Union member states, gathered in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), did not give the green light to the opening of Chapter 3 in the negotiations with Serbia during today's meeting in Brussels.
This is an unofficial document (non-paper) of the European Commission, which recommends the opening of Chapter 3 in the accession negotiations with Serbia. The EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, had also spoken about this recommendation in recent days, writes nova.rs.
According to diplomatic sources, eight EU member states have spoken out against allowing this new step in Serbia's European integration process. Among them are the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Sweden, as well as the three Baltic states - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
According to unofficial information, the issue of opening Chapter 3 is also expected to be discussed at the meeting of the EU Council for Foreign Affairs, attended by the Foreign Ministers of the member states, which is scheduled to be held on July 13. However, there are currently no signs that the opposing countries will change their position.
The European Commission had recommended earlier this month that member states approve the opening of Chapter 3, assessing that, although not all political priorities have been fully met, Belgrade has made sufficient progress to move to the next phase of the accession negotiations. This assessment was based on an information document from the European Commission, as well as on a separate document that the Serbian Government sent to EU member states on 3 July.
Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos stated during last night's debate in the European Parliament that the latest reform steps undertaken by the Serbian government were the basis on which the European Commission recommended the opening of Chapter 3.
She emphasized that progress has been made in implementing ODIHR recommendations, while recent developments regarding the operationalization of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) are encouraging. /Telegraph/
