Brnabic: It is important that EU member states honour EC recommendation

BRUSSELS - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Friday in Brussels it was important that EU member states honoured a European Commission recommendation to open Cluster 3 in Serbia's EU accession talks.

Passing amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll and electing members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) meets two major requirements in the accession process, Brnabic told reporters after meetings with EU foreign policy and security chief Kaja Kallas and Gert Jan Koopman, director-general of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood.

She said that, as always, the discussions had been open, sincere and constructive and that the meeting with Kallas had addressed Serbia's further EU path as well as acceleration of that path and reforms in the country.

"The most important item on the agenda right now is opening of Cluster 3 and a confirmation that Serbia continues its European integration," Brnabic said.

She noted that Serbia had been ready to open Cluster 3 since as early as December 2021 and that the latest European Commission report on Serbia's progress reiterated for a fifth time a recommendation to open the cluster.

"That was the fundamental topic of my meeting with Kaja Kallas," Brnabic said, adding that she had noted that it was good and important that the Serbian parliament had passed amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll earlier in the day to implement the most important and the most complex ODIHR recommendation for further improvement of electoral conditions.

She said she hoped that, following a debate, the parliament would next week vote on electing nine new REM Council members.

"Therefore, we are finishing two more major things that have been requested of us, but it is necessary that the EU, and individual member states, honour and implement the EC recommendation to open Cluster 3 so that Serbia then continues on its European path and that, for our part, we accelerate the reforms," Brnabic said.