Croatia continues to block opening of chapter 23

Croatia continues to block opening of chapter 23

Tanjug said it learned from diplomatic sources in Brussels that the Dutch EU presidency had placed the topic on the agenda of the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER) meeting in Brussels today, even though it was clear from earlier talks with Croatia that its stance against opening chapter 23 with Serbia would remain unchanged.

The meeting of ambassadorial level representatives was closed to the public and diplomatic sources from the Council of the EU say that Croatia still wants Serbia to annul its law that claims regional jurisdiction in the prosecution of war crimes and to provide guarantees that the Croatian minority would be represented in the Serbian parliament in bigger numbers.

The Netherlands insists that Chapters 23 and 24 in negotiations with Serbia should be fully opened during their presidency, which expires in June.

It is one of the reasons why the issue was raised from the level of Council Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) to the level of permanent representatives of EU member states.

According to Beta, "France and Germany were decisively supporting the Dutch stand, stating that Serbia had fulfilled all the set criteria and that the opening of these chapters is necessary to maintain the credibility of the EU enlargement process."

The sources at the meeting told the agency that "nobody could force Croatia to allow the opening of the negotiation chapters with Serbia, but that everyone was persuading Croatia that this was pointless."

Meanwhile in Belgrade, the Serbian minister without portfolio in charge of EU integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, said late on Wednesday, that Belgrade had met the agreed criteria and it was now the European Commission's turn to make a move.

"We're going around in circles. Serbia behaved and is behaving constructively. Just as I said earlier, this is a matter of member-states and the European Commission reaching an agreement," Joksimovic told Tanjug.

The minister stressed that Serbia had met the previously agreed criteria for opening the chapters.

"Now it's the European Commission's turn," said Joksimovic.