Serbia's Accession to EU Not Determined Yet, Depends on Satisfaction of Conditions -Merkel
There are no determined dates for the accession of Serbia to the European Union and it depends on Belgrade's efforts to fulfill the criteria, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday after a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic
"If Serbia fulfills the criteria, then it will be the time to speak about criteria. I can't say which year it will happen, I do not set any limits," Merkel said.
The chancellor particularly paid attention to the problems in the relations between Belgrade and Kosovo, which should be solved by the Serbian leadership in order to move toward the accession to the bloc.
Merkel noted that Belgrade had reached significant progress in the process of accession.
Since the collapse of Yugoslavia, the status of Kosovo has been disputed between Serbia and Kosovo's Albanian population. In the 1990s, an armed struggle between Albanian separatists and Serbia prompted NATO to launch a military campaign against the latter.
In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally announced its independence from Serbia. Russia, as well as an overwhelming majority of Latin American and Asian nations, do not recognize the self-proclaimed republic.
In 2011, Serbia, under the pressure of Brussels, started negotiations on the normalization of relations with Kosovar Albanians under the mediation of the European Union. The dialogue is currently suspended.