STRASBOURG – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday 2025 was not the year when Serbia and Montenegro “must” be in the EU, but an indicative date and encouragement for the countries that had made the most progress on the EU path.
“It is wrong to assert that I and the Commission had said that Serbia and Montenegro must be in by 2025. No, that is an indicative date, an encouragement, so that the parties concerned work hard to follow that path,” Juncker said in Strasbourg ahead of the presentation of the EU’s new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans.
Serbia and Montenegro, “the countries which have made the most progress, have been given another date which stirs things up,” he said.
“We wish to see enlargement in the Western Balkans. It is not that I want them to enter without fulfilling the conditions, however,” he said.