GMF - The German Marshall Fund of the United States - Strengthening Transatlantic Cooperation

The EU knows that if Croatia, as a locomotive of the Euro-integration process, joins the EU, the “coaches”, that are also in the “train composition”, will have to join the EU too. Montenegro will probably get the date of the commencement of the preaccession negotiations, since it has met the required conditions by enacting the Election Law and because Montenegrin political parties have reached a compromise. It is important for Serbia, as the biggest country in our micro-region, to make the next step too. It is the reputation of the European Union that is at stake here since we are talking about enlargement, i.e. the most important project since its foundation.

The date when the European Commission is supposed to  give  its  opinion  about  the  progress  that  Serbia  has made in Euro integrations is approaching. How much did we actually do in fulfilling one of the main prerequisites - dialogue with Priština – as detailed  in  the message  that German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought to Serbia?

I don’t  think  that  our  candidacy  bid  is  in  jeopardy  for several reasons. Serbia will get its candidacy since it did advance in the domain of the democratic legislative reforms, as it was required to do, and that is something that nobody is contesting. The only contentious  issue here  is  the date of commencement of the accession negotiations. This date is as equally  important  since  it  is  the  last validation  that we are entering the procedure, as was evident in Croatia’s example. It  is  important that Croatia has managed to get where it is today, as it is an indication that other countries in the region can do the same..