Brnabic: EU enlargement process based on political will, not merit

BRUSSELS - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Thursday the EU enlargement process was not based on merit, but on political will.

Addressing an annual EU-Western Balkans summit hosted by Friends of Europe, Brnabic said she was "a little bit confused" about the enlargement process and its perspective.

"Is it based on meritocracy, or is it just purely political will? Last year, I said that it is not based on meritocracy. It is absolutely not a merit-based process and I, kind of, feel that, to keep insisting on that phrase that it is merit-based has almost become an insult to most of us in the Western Balkans, because it has nothing to do with setting the goals," she said.

When you achieve the goals in terms of implementing reforms, the clusters will not magically open, she noted.

"Serbia fulfilled all of the technical conditions to open Cluster 3 already in 2021. We are going to enter 2026 without, obviously, Cluster 3 being open. It does not seem likely that it is going to be opened in December, by the end of 2025. We have already had five consecutive progress reports from the European Commission, recommending to EU member states to open Cluster 3 with Serbia, and nothing is happening. So, no, it is not merit-based," Brnabic said, adding that, instead, the process was based on political will.