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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Full EU membership best for Serbia

Belgrade/Bled, 28 August 2023

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated today that our country has fulfilled all that is necessary to open Cluster 3 in the negotiations with the European Union (EU), and at the same time assessed that full membership in the EU is the best for Serbia, but that it is in the interest of the Union too.

After a panel on the Western Balkans, held as part of the Bled Strategic Forum, Brnabic pointed out in her address to journalists that there are several reasons why the interest of citizens in EU membership is waning, the first of which being that the membership process takes a very long time and there is no end in sight.

The second reason is that the criteria for making progress on the path towards EU membership are constantly changing. We have fulfilled everything necessary to open Cluster 3 in our negotiations with the EU, which concerns competitiveness and inclusive growth, she reiterated.

According to her, in the last two annual reports on Serbia’s progress, the European Commission makes a recommendation to all EU member states to agree to open Cluster 3, which is extremely important, but that is still not happening.

When we fulfilled everything that was necessary for the opening of Cluster 3, there was no war on the European continent. In the meantime, the war in Ukraine started and the demands have changed, the Prime Minister stated.

Brnabic said that now it can be heard that one of the demands is the harmonisation of Serbia's foreign policy with that of the EU, which has nothing to do with Cluster 3, which would be retroactive and contrary to the framework of our negotiation process.

Within that framework, a country should align itself with the EU's foreign and security policy at the moment it becomes a member of the EU, said the Prime Minister and added that these goals are constantly changing, which is something that certainly frustrates people and that all our citizens see.

She recalled the case of North Macedonia, which, even after changing its name, did not get a date for the start of negotiations and assessed that all this contributes to Euroscepticism.

The Prime Minister said that EU membership must remain Serbia's priority and that she believes that it is necessary to work with Brussels in order to speed up the process of Serbia's European integration.

Answering a journalists’ question about the European integration of the countries of the Western Balkans, she pointed out that at today's gathering one could see a huge amount of frustration of all the leaders of countries of the Western Balkans with that process.

Brnabic reiterated that President of the European Council Charles Michel said at the Strategic Forum that the EU must be ready for expansion by 2030, pointing out that earlier, in the development strategies, 2025 was mentioned as the year of Serbia's accession to the EU, and that it has now been moved to 2030.

We have to do our best to find a way to make it happen sooner or to work with the EU in order to achieve more concrete developments, she underlined and added that 65 to 70 percent of investments in Serbia are from the EU, we export the same amount to the Union, while we export 18 percent to the Western Balkan region.

I believe that European integration is important for our country and our priorities must remain the EU and the Western Balkans, the Prime Minister repeated and noted that European integration brings with it numerous values, such as the rule of law, peace, prosperity.