The head of the negotiating team Tanja Miščević said that Serbia is interested in opening three more chapters by the end of the year concerning European Union membership negotiations. She has also stated that main challenge in realization of obligations provided by Chapter 23 rests in the rule of law.
At the conference “Implementation of the activities envisaged by the Action Plan for Chapter 23,” Miščević said that at this point EU Council contains three chapters, Chapter 5 regarding public procurement, Chapter 25 and 26 concerning teachings, research, education and culture.
“We are strongly interested in opening these chapters by the end of year,” said Miščević.
She added that the European Commission report on Serbia’s progress is expected by the 9th of November, pointing out that next report will not be next year, but that the next will follow in 2018.
Considering main challenges in implementation of Chapter 23, Miščević stated that the report concerning the implementation of Action Plan will be done by the end of January and that Serbia will send reports to European Commission regarding this matter twice a year.
According to her, reports to the European Commission and mechanisms for the supervision of implementation of Action Plan are frequent enough so there will be no mistakes with regard to implementation delays and ascertainment ofprogress.
Miščević has pointed out that the key challenge lies in monitoring of deadlines.
“It is important for us that the measures we have taken meet the set deadlines. Civil society alertness with regard to meeting the deadlines is important and we are open to hear them out”, said Miščević.
It is also important that government authorities work with civil sector on creating high quality documents that relate to implementation of the Action Plan.
“Main purpose of civil sector lies in monitoring implementation of the Action Plan”, said Miščević stating that the path to EU lies in cooperation between government authorities and civil sector.
As she explained, government authorities are transparent and open in giving opinions considering arguments of civil sector and this must be a mutual process.
