EU and Serbia to begin membership talks on December 14

Belgrade (dpa) - The European Union will launch membership talks with Serbia on December 14, EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Thursday."Next Monday, the EU and Serbia will open the first two negotiation chapters, chapters 32, financial control, and chapter 35 which deals with the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina," Hahn told the Serbian parliament in Belgrade.The EU approved the membership talks nearly two years ago, but delayed the formal start of negotiations until Serbia moved forward in the normalization of ties with its breakaway province Kosovo.The European Commission, the EU‘s executive arm, ruled in a report in November that Serbia had achieved enough for the negotiations to get underway.Serbia needs to continue the normalization process with Kosovo while reforming its judiciary, public administration and economy, fighting corruption and discrimination and strengthening freedom of expression, Hahn said."Serbia needs these reforms not because of the EU, but because they have the potential to modernise Serbia, bringing benefits to its people," he said.Serbia is the largest of the countries that emerged from the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Two of the former federal republics, Slovenia and Croatia, are already members of the EU.Serbia‘s membership talks, divided into 35 chapters defining various areas, are set to last for years.The last chapter, on relations with Kosovo, is unique to Serbia‘s case because of its relations with the former province which Belgrade refuses to recognize.Five of the EU 28 member states - Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia - also do not recognize Kosovo.