Starovic: Serbia has realistic chances of opening Cluster 3 by end-July

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starovic said on Friday Serbia had realistic chances of opening Cluster 3 in its EU accession talks by end-July to unblock the accession process.

Serbia wants to seize a strong, positive momentum in the EU enlargement process, Starovic noted.

"We have good chances, and assurances from relevant discussion partners in the EU that, if we deliver on the package of commitments we accepted in November last year, we will have maximum support from the European Commission and European institutions to hold an inter-governmental conference by end-July to open Cluster 3," Starovic told K1 TV.

Speaking about Serbia's commitments regarding the cluster, Starovic said a package of media laws was the number one commitment.

He said the text of all three media laws had been agreed on and that draft laws had been adopted by the Serbian government and would be tabled to the parliament next week.

Starovic said adopting a law on a unified electoral roll was the second commitment and that a draft law had been fully harmonised with ODIHR recommendations and due to be tabled to MPs in early July.

"The third commitment is the election of the members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority on Electronic Media. Forty-nine candidates have applied and the parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information now needs to conduct individual interviews with the candidates and implement a few more steps to carry out the process in early July and elect the members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority on Electronic Media, whereby we will fully deliver on all three commitments and be ready to open Cluster 3," Starovic said.