Serbia Kicks Off EU Membership Talks

Local Editor

Serbia officially kicked off membership talks with the European Union on Tuesday, the first step in years of negotiations aimed at seeing the Western Balkan country become the 29th EU state.

"This is indeed an historic day for Serbia and for the EU," said the bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele.

The official start to the membership talks, a process expected to take anywhere from six or seven years to a decade, comes after Serbia made significant steps in efforts to normalize ties with breakaway Kosovo.

The latest country to join the EU was Serbia's neighbor Croatia, which became the 28th member in July last year.

The EU delegation at Tuesday's talks was led by Greece's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evangelos Venizelos, whose country is current EU chair.
The Serbian delegation was led by Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Minister for Foreign Affairs Ivan Mrkic, and Minister for EU Integration Branko Ruzic.

Once considered a pariah state, Serbia hopes the historic start of the accession talks will provide a boost to its struggling economy.
The negotiations will begin with the two most difficult and important of the 35 policy chapters which must be successfully negotiated prior to membership -- those on the judiciary and basic rights.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team