Kovac: Serbia hoping to open Cluster 3 during Hungary's EU presidency

BELGRADE - Hungary's EU presidency will be about supporting the EU enlargement process and the Western Balkans' EU accession path - undeniably, the region has been put on hold due to the geopolitical situation but we are hoping Serbia will open Cluster 3 (Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth) in its accession talks during the Hungarian presidency, Serbian Deputy Parliament Speaker Elvira Kovac, who also heads the parliamentary committee on EU integration, said on Monday.

"In October or November, we will have an European Commission report that will say, for a third time already, that we are prepared for this cluster, which is not a political one, nor a sensitive issue. We are really working on European integration and opening this chapter would lend an impetus to enlargement," Kovac told Vecernje novosti in an interview.

She said the end of the Hungarian EU presidency - the expected date of a Serbia-EU intergovernmental conference - would mark three years since Serbia had opened its last cluster in the talks, and added that she believed it was time for the situation to change.

Asked if the matter of the so-called Kosovo's Council of Europe membership had been postponed until further notice, Kovac said the CoE Parliamentary Assembly had submitted a positive opinion on it.

"The final decision is up to the Committee of Ministers. The matter has been postponed thanks to the Quint states, which have set a condition that Pristina send a draft statute of the Community of Serb Municipalities to the constitutional court, and it is clear the PM of the (Pristina) provisional institutions Albin Kurti is unwilling to do that. The Committee meets once a week at ambassadorial level, but the matter of the so-called Kosovo has been put aside for the time being," Kovac said.