EP: Committee wants talks to start in December

The European parliament foreign affairs committee has adopted a draft resolution on Serbia, stating that the accession talks should start in December.

Izvor: Tanjug

Thursday, 05.12.2013.

12:02

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BRUSSELS The European parliament foreign affairs committee has adopted a draft resolution on Serbia, stating that the accession talks should start in December. The draft, which is based on a report by EP rapporteur on Serbia Jelko Kacin about Serbia's progress in EU integration, was adopted unanimously without debate. EP: Committee wants talks to start in December The committee has never achieved such a consensus, Kacin said at the meeting, stressing that it was necessary to send a positive signal to Serbia for the efforts invested so far. The document was first submitted to the committee in October this year and has since gone through two rounds of discussion to be adopted on Friday with minor changes. The EP will vote on it early next year. The committee feels that an intergovernmental conference between the EU and Serbia should be held in December 2013 if the requirements set down by the European Council in June are met, the draft resolution states. The proposed resolution calls on the Serbian authorities "to maintain their efforts towards bringing their relations with Pristina back to normal, conducting reforms and battling corruption." The committee meeting was held less than two weeks before the key meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, set for December 17, where the foreign ministers of EU member states will give their final opinion on the date of the first intergovernmental conference, which will mark the formal start of the talks. The Council of the EU decided in June this year that the talks with Serbia should start no later than January 2014. According to Tanjug's diplomatic sources in Brussels, the EU members are still debating whether the intergovernmental conference should be held in December or January. EP resolutions are not binding for the Council, but they are taken into consideration in making the final decision. Tanjug

EP: Committee wants talks to start in December

The committee has never achieved such a consensus, Kacin said at the meeting, stressing that it was necessary to send a positive signal to Serbia for the efforts invested so far.

The document was first submitted to the committee in October this year and has since gone through two rounds of discussion to be adopted on Friday with minor changes. The EP will vote on it early next year.

The committee feels that an intergovernmental conference between the EU and Serbia should be held in December 2013 if the requirements set down by the European Council in June are met, the draft resolution states.

The proposed resolution calls on the Serbian authorities "to maintain their efforts towards bringing their relations with Priština back to normal, conducting reforms and battling corruption."

The committee meeting was held less than two weeks before the key meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, set for December 17, where the foreign ministers of EU member states will give their final opinion on the date of the first intergovernmental conference, which will mark the formal start of the talks.

The Council of the EU decided in June this year that the talks with Serbia should start no later than January 2014.

According to Tanjug's diplomatic sources in Brussels, the EU members are still debating whether the intergovernmental conference should be held in December or January.

EP resolutions are not binding for the Council, but they are taken into consideration in making the final decision.

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