German parliament gives Serbia "green light"

Source: Beta, Tanjug

BERLIN -- The German parliament has authorized the German government to vote in favor of the beginning of the EU accession talks with Serbia.

(Tanjug, file)

The vote will take place at Friday's session of the European Council, Tanjug is reporting, and adding that the German parliament "also supported Serbia's European perspective and commended the efforts that the country made in the area of reforms."
The German parliament called on the government to approve Serbia's accession talks at a session of the European Council on June 27 and 28 under condition that the first accession conference is held in January 2014 if the European Council confirms in December "full and lasting implementation of the obligations stemming from the implementation plan adopted by Serbia and Kosovo on May 26."

The German parliament underlined that "the Serb parallel structures in north Kosovo need to be fully dismantled," and instead new structures should be established in the areas of security and judiciary of Kosovo which would be subject to political control and financing only by the Kosovo government.

According to Tanjug, "other requests" refer to a detailed insight into all Serb payments to the institutions in Kosovo, organization of free and fair local elections in Kosovo and full implementation of all previous results of the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština, which includes "unimpeded access of the Kosovo border police and customs officers to the checkpoints in north Kosovo."

It is also added that before Serbia can become a full-fledged member, "a legally binding agreement must be signed" between Belgrade and Priština. This agreement, the German parliament explained, "must enable Serbia and Kosovo to, as full-fledge members, based on EU acts independently jointly use their rights and obligations."

The declaration adopted today in Berlin also said that "it must be secured that the process of normalization between Serbia and Kosovo be treated in one of the negotiations chapters, and that this chapter, along with the rule of law area, must be the focus of the accession negotiations."

"if Serbia, after the opening of accession negotiations, hesitates in implementing the undertaken obligations, suspends or abandons them, accession negotiations should be halted," the declaration adopted by the German parliament said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that the first conference on Serbia's EU accession may take place in January only after a confirmation in December on progress in the implementation of the Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Priština.

The German parliament discussion qualified the Brussels agreement as "a historic step," commended the efforts and everything that has been done on Serbia's EU pathway and clearly requested the implementation of the agreements with a warning that the EU "cannot allow another enlargement mistake such as in the case of Cyprus."