Dutch Foreign Minister Kaspar Veldkamp has announced that the Netherlands will block the next step on Serbia’s path to EU membership, citing concerns about Belgrade’s readiness for the next phase of the accession process.
Veldkamp told reporters after today’s consultations with European colleagues in Brussels.
“We see that there is not enough progress in the area of the rule of law in Serbia,” Veldkamp said in a statement reported by the NL Times.
“At the same time, we see insufficient progress in relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Serbia also has a clear responsibility in this. We see that Serbia has still not sufficiently aligned its foreign policy with the EU’s foreign policy,” the Dutch foreign minister said.
Tomorrow, the member states’ foreign ministers will continue consultations in Brussels on the progress of candidate countries on their path to EU integration.
Veldkamp wants, as he told reporters, to convince other governments in Europe to take such a position so that the Netherlands does not have to be alone.
“We really want to put pressure on Serbia now,” Veldkamp said.
He added that he thought it was important for the EU to attach importance to developing the rule of law in order to thwart “worrying developments” in Hungary and parts of Slovakia and to strengthen the EU, not weaken it.
“So we really expect more steps from Serbia in the coming period,” Veldkamp said.
Last week, parliamentary debates were held ahead of the European Commission’s progress report on the candidate countries for EU membership, and many Dutch politicians said they were opposed to opening the next step in Serbia’s accession process at this time.
Member of Parliament Kati Piri stressed that the EU accession process must be based on achieved results and that the rule of law is an important part of that, adding that Serbia has made “insufficient” progress on this issue, AA writes.
