Vucic: I hope we will open Cluster 3 by end of year

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday he hoped Serbia would open Cluster 3 in its EU accession talks by the end of the year, noting that the move would be an important signal of Serbia's progress on the EU path.

"It is important that we preserve peace in the meantime, even though, as you know, I am not overly optimistic about the global situation," Vucic said at a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

He said von der Leyen had requested from Serbia a much higher degree of alignment with the EU's foreign policy declarations as well as alignment on some other issues.

"I just want you to know that we know clearly what the demands and the expectations are, and I tried to inform President von der Leyen of Serbia's positions on all issues," Vucic said.

He said the EU was Serbia's top external trade partner and that the volume of goods and services trade with the EU had totalled nearly 51 bln euros last year.

He said he hoped the trade volume would rise this year and added that Germany accounted for 24 pct of the overall trade with the EU and was followed by Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechia and France.

"What is very important is that we discussed the reform agenda. We know what our job is and what we need to do about rule of law, especially the judiciary, trials within reasonable time and timely resolutions of trials," he said.

Vucic noted that infrastructure projects being carried out with the EU were extremely important for Serbia, and highlighted a Belgrade-Nis high-speed rail line as the most important of such projects.