EU Should Make Up Its Mind on Candidate States, Serb Leader Says
EU Should Make Up Its Mind on Candidate States, Serb Leader Says
(Bloomberg) -- Applicants for European Union membership, mainly in the western Balkans, hope the bloc will clearly declare that it wants them as members, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Setbacks in the enlargement process, notably the rejection of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania last year, have thrown all hopefuls into doubt about what the world’s biggest trading bloc is planning, Vucic said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Just let us know what your final decision is on the western Balkans,” Vucic said Tuesday. “If it’s a positive decision, we’re very ready to boost not only our economic reforms but also political reforms and everything else.”
The EU’s main condition for Serbia is for it to mend ties with Kosovo, which seceded with Western support after the two sides fought a 1998-1999 war and declared independence in 2008. Serbia, backed by its allies Russia and China, refuses to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, and the EU won’t take new members that have unresolved territorial disputes.
EU-brokered talks between Serbia and Kosovo may resume as soon as the latter revokes its punitive, 100% tax on Serbian goods, Vucic said. The tariff was imposed in 2018 in retaliation to Serbia’s lobbying to block Kosovo’s recognition in international bodies including the United Nations.
The two countries took a small step toward partial rapprochement Monday, when they signed a U.S.-brokered deal that may allow them to resume commercial and cargo flights between Belgrade and Pristina, their capitals.
“It’s up to them whether they want to revoke the tariffs or not,” Vucic said. Kosovo may have a new government in place next month, and it it lifts the trade barrier, “we are ready to come to the negotiation table,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Dudik in Prague at adudik@bloomberg.net;Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew Langley
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