Bundestag Rapporteur: Not Realistic for Serbia to Open Cluster 3 in December

Thomas Hacker (Youtube/Printscreen)

It is not realistic for Serbia to open Cluster 3 in the negotiations with the European Union by the end of this year, since it has not advanced on the European path, the rapporteur for the Western Balkans in the Foreign Policy Committee of Germany’s Bundestag, Thomas Hacker, stated on Nov. 21.

Commenting on the messages from Brussels saying that Serbia might open Cluster 3 in the negotiations, about the media, welfare policy, entrepreneurship and industry, Hacker told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that this would be “too soon” because certain conditions had to be met.

“We must see all the working groups well constituted and working properly and that the representatives of the authorities and the opposition are represented in them. We must see the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media working with a full complement of staff,” stated Hacker, who is a member of the liberal Party of Free Democrats in the Bundestag.

He stated that, in the process of EU enlargement, it was clearly seen which membership candidate countries worked on advancing the rule of law, democracy and media freedom, and which lagged behind, and added that the recent annual report of the European Commission was not positive for Serbia.