EU, Serbia Open New Chapter of Accession Talks - Finnish Chairmanship

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) The European Union and Serbia have opened a new chapter of accession talks concerning free movement of capital, the spokesperson for the Finnish Presidency in the Council of the European Union, Tytti Tuppurainen, said on Tuesday.

Serbia's accession talks have formally begun in January 2014.

"Today in 11th ministerial meeting of the #Accession Conference with #Serbia we opened chapter 4 - Free movement of capital. I am glad that we could record this result in our negotiations. This is a positive signal also for the Western Balkans region as a whole," Tuppurainen said on Twitter.

Serbia has received a full candidate status from the European Union in 2012, while the accession talks started in 2014.

So far, only two out of 31 chapters, the conditions for membership in the bloc, have been closed, while 17 of them have now been opened. Despite the aspirations to join the European Union, Serbia does not plan to become a member of NATO, as it adheres to a policy of strict military neutrality.

There are 35 chapters on Serbia's dossier in accession talks. Two of them, namely Chapter 25 - Science and research and Chapter 26 - education and culture, have already been provisionally closed. Once the EU confirms that all targets set under each chapter have been reached, the country is considered eligible to proceed to further stages of accession talks.