“No conditional EU talks date for Serbia”

Source: Novi magazin

BELGRADE -- Serbia will probably not get a conditional date for the beginning of the EU accession talks at the coming European Council meeting, weekly Novi magazin writes.

A well-informed source told the weekly that Belgrade could not count that the EU heads of state would make a concession and grant a conditional date for the beginning of the EU talks to Serbia.

“Chances are minimal. They will probably commend Serbia’s progress in the dialogue with Priština but they will hardly approve a date for the negotiations based on all that,” the source was quoted as saying.

According to the source, Serbia’s future will be decided in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office.

Germany is one of the main proponents of Kosovo’s independence in the EU and insists that progress be made in the implementation of the agreements that have been reached so far in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue, including the agreement on the integrated crossings management.

The so-called conditional date for the start of the EU accession negotiations was first mentioned after Serbian and Kosovo PMs Ivica Dačić and Hashim Thaci met in late October.

After the talks had been raised to a political level it was expected that Brussels would consider a possibility of giving a conditional date to Serbia.

This means that a date would be confirmed once Serbia has fulfilled all the necessary conditions that primarily have to do with Kosovo and the implementation of the agreements between Belgrade and Priština.