Greeting message to the participants of conference EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and Serbian Accession to the EU By the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini
I warmly welcome this initiative by the ISAC Fund to organise a conference dedicated to CFSP and Serbia’s accession to the EU, and to share experiences of EU MS and Western Balkan countries.
In a rapidly changing world, the EU and Serbia are facing serious new security challenges, especially to the East and to the South. At the moment, the EU is running 16 civilian and military operations under its Common Security and Defence Policy. And with its participation Serbia is helping us combat piracy off the coast of Africa, and to restore stability in Mali, Somalia and the Central African Republic. Sometimes these may seem far off places. But the security challenges they create are ones that affect us all.
Serbia has committed itself to progressively bring its positions in CFSP closer to those of the European Union. We are keen to see progress in this area and we are also keen to maintain and develop the dialogue with Serbia on a range of CFSP issues. Let me also say that I welcome the Serbian government’s commitment to EU accession as its priority strategic goal. I also welcome Serbia’s commitment to the shared values of democracy, rule of law and respect for fundamental rights. This gains added significance during a year in which Serbia holds the chairmanship in office of the OSCE. The European Union remains fully committed to supporting Serbia on its EU path. Serbia opened accession negotiations with EU last year. I expect that Serbia will be able to open the first chapters in those negotiations still this year.
