"Serbia's great closeness with Russia is what's blocking it"

"Serbia's great closeness with Russia is what's blocking it"

Although the Croatian green light was good news, continued the newspaper, "this will in no way diminish the demands of Zagreb, but also of other EU member states, that they be fulfilled."

The sources added that Serbia still faces "a number of open issues that Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, but also the Baltic countries can put on the agenda when it comes to other chapters, and slow down the negotiating process."

The daily further said its sources "cited the example of Montenegro, which quickly opened the chapters" and noted there was "a completely different political stance in that country, because Podgorica distanced itself from Moscow by introducing sanctions against Russia, and therefore allow itself to quickly open the door both to the EU and NATO."

The paper reported this in the context of Wednesday's news out of Brussels that a agreement had been reached regarding the opening of chapter 23, with Croatia consenting to this as the only of EU's 28 member-states that had not done so.