Apostolovic: Macron-Merz non-paper would benefit Serbia, accelerate EU enlargement

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian Mission to the EU Danijel Apostolovic, who also chairs Serbia's operating team for the EU accession talks, said on Monday the country would benefit greatly from the implementation of a non-paper proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tivat, Montenegro, last week.

"Member states would not be blocking candidates through bilateral issues and various requests, but when the European Commission deems that a certain candidate has met the conditions and is ready to open a cluster, the proceedings would be more automatic in a way, which would expedite the process of opening clusters considerably," Apostolovic told Prva TV.

Serbia would have benefits such as inclusion in the single EU market and would also become fully integrated in the European energy market, he noted.

"When it comes to closing individual chapters, the unanimity in decision-making remains. But, for now, these are all just ideas. It remains to be seen how other member states will react to this and what kind of fine-tuning there will be potentially," Apostolovic said.

He said the implementation of the non-paper would suit Serbia exceptionally well as the country was in a paradoxical situation where, for five years now, the European Commission's annual reports had been stating that it had met all the conditions for opening Cluster 3, which has still not been opened.

"I believe that, if this new methodology were to take hold, it would really facilitate the process for us. What is also very important about this non-paper is the possibility of inclusion in certain policies and certain sectoral things, such as a single market, energy and many other things, prior to membership itself," Apostolovic said.

These benefits would be tangible for Serbian citizens and businesses and companies operating in the country, he said.