Brnabic: Opening Cluster 3 a political issue, EU has double standards

PARIS - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday in Paris opening Cluster 3 in Serbia's EU accession talks was a political issue and that the EU had double standards that were not good for the bloc itself, and noted that she had been pointing to this in discussions with European officials.

Speaking to reporters, Brnabic said Serbia kept reminding its European partners that it had been prepared to open the cluster as early as in December 2021.

"If we respect that principle of meritocracy, we should have opened Cluster 3 a long time ago. However, since things are changing, we have been given additional tasks that we need to complete, and once we do complete them, we can only hope and believe we will not be given new tasks again," Brnabic said.

She noted that this depended on the political will of the EU member states.

Brnabic said it was a "bit difficult" to believe Albania was likely to open all clusters by the end of this year.

"No one can convince us that Albania is more prepared for EU integration than Serbia, no one can convince us that rule of law, media freedoms and the fight against organised crime or corruption in Albania are on a higher level compared to Serbia. No one can convince the people in the EU itself of that, so that is where double standards are evident," Brnabic said.

She said double standards were not good for the EU itself and that, even if Serbia did nothing, opening Cluster 3 would be a good thing.

Brnabic said Serbia would deliver on all its promises - above all, the passage of amendments to the law on the electoral roll, to be tabled to the parliament next week.

She said she hoped new members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media would soon be elected as well.