EU’s Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said he would personally commit himself to opening of the first negotiating chapters with Serbia by the year’s end. Commissioner Hahn told German EurAktiv in an interview that signals coming from representatives of the EU member states suggested that an early start to the accession process was on the cards.
“Being Enlargement Commissioner, I have committed myself personally to making sure that EU states open negotiating chapters with Serbia by the end of the year”, Hahn said.
According to him, Serbia made truly remarkable progress over the last year, both in terms of internal reforms and the reconciliation dialogue. Commissioner Hahn highlighted the declaration signed by Western Balkans leaders, in which they pledged not to impede each others accession efforts. “This would have been nigh on unthinkable a year ago!” says Hahn.
Assessing the Vienna summit, Hahn believes that regional networking between the Balkan states is brought forward, having given a green light to the implementation and expansion of priority projects in the energy and transport infrastructure sectors. “The EU will provide €200 million in funding for these projects, with total investment coming to €600 million,” says Hahn, adding that this is a strong boost for the economies of these countries.
Speaking about current refugee crisis, Johannes Hahn said that Western Balkans was not the source of the problem, but victim of its own geographical location, as it is used as transit countries. He reminded that European Commission for years dealt with this issue and that in May 2015 submitted a comprehensive proposal for a European migrant agenda, as well as a fair distribution of refugees. “Nine years ago we submitted a proposal for an EU-wide, mandatory list of ‘safe countries’ and in September we will push this back to the forefront,” told European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn in an interview with EurAktiv.
