The Coordinator for the issues of the European integration of Serbia Dragisa Mijacic said today that the chance to open in December cluster 3 in the country's EU membership negotiations e small, reported the Serbian news agency TANYUG, quoted by BTA.
In his words, there is an opportunity at the beginning of next year, after Poland takes over the presidency of the EU, to raise this issue again.
Mijacic, who is the coordinator of the Working Group of the Serbian National Convention on the EU for Chapter 35, said in an interview with Tanjug that Bulgaria does not agree with the opening of Cluster 3 because of certain bilateral problems that it wants to solve in this way.
He noted that Bulgaria is doing the same in the case of the European integration process of North Macedonia, and in Serbia it is primarily solving issues in the field of the educational policy of the Bulgarian national minority.
At the beginning of the week, EU member states failed to reach an agreement on the opening of cluster 3 "Competitiveness and inclusive growth" in the negotiations with Serbia.
The three Baltic republics, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Croatia and Bulgaria, voted against the opening of the cluster, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier this week.
As for other countries lacking political consent, Mijacic said the Baltic countries, Sweden and Finland took this position because Belgrade did not impose sanctions against Moscow, and the Netherlands because of the rule of law in Serbia
„Serbia is criticized for many things. Croatia especially on the issue of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, because in recent years Croatia has been a bastion of the protection of Kosovo's interests in the EU, Mijacic said.
Serbia does not recognize the independence of its former province of Kosovo, declared in 2008. The two countries are conducting negotiations to normalize their relations with the mediation of the EU.
At the end of October, the European Commission's report on Serbia's progress noted that technically the country meets the conditions for opening cluster 3 "Competitiveness and inclusive growth", which covers a total of 8 chapters. However, in the document, the commission recommended that the Serbian authorities comply with the EU's common foreign policy and impose sanctions on Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
Serbia, which is a candidate for EU membership, has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia imposed over the invasion of Ukraine, although Belgrade has condemned Moscow's aggression.
Mijacic pointed out that the opening of cluster 3 is currently being discussed in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of EU Member States (COREPER).
He also believes that if cluster 3 is not opened in the coming months, Serbia will not be able to negotiate for EU membership in the next period.
/SU/
Source: www.bta.bg