Brnabic receives Koopman

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic received the Director-General of the European Commission's Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Directorate Gert Jan Koopman in Belgrade on Monday to discuss key issues related to continuing to meet the conditions Serbia is to deliver on to open Cluster 3 in its EU accession talks, as well as competitiveness and sustainable development and accelerating further the EU integration process in Serbia.

Brnabic noted Serbia's commitment to EU integration and thanked Koopman for supporting the implementation of the necessary reforms and stressed that the EU path remained Serbia's priority.

They discussed the process of selecting the members of the council of a regulatory body for electronic media and a working group for improving the electoral conditions, and noted that, for the first time in the history of the Serbian parliament, the working group was chaired by a representative of civil society, an official statement said.

Brnabic informed Koopman that certain opposition parties in the parliament were not taking part in the group's work.

Koopman noted that the EU was ready to support Serbia on the EU path in line with the country's ambitions to complete its accession preparations by the end of 2026.

He expressed the confidence Serbia would soon complete the steps it had committed to in December 2024, including in key areas of rule of law, which EU member states have said would lead to opening the long-awaited Cluster 3.

They also discussed the EU's Western Balkans Growth Plan and Serbia's reform agenda.