BELGRADE – Head of Serbia’s EU negotiation team Tanja Miščević will leave the position this week, reports Danas referring to an informed source.
Coordinator of the National Convention on the EU Nataša Dragojlović announced on her Twitter account last Thursday that the Convention had the last official meeting with the current head of negotiation team. She expressed her gratitude to Miščević for “professionalism and dedication to the EU integration process,” Danas article reads.
Miščević has led Serbia’s negotiating team since 2013, and was appointed to the position shortly before the opening of EU accession negotiations.
The Head of negotiation team leaves the accession process at the moment when Serbia is on the halfway through opening all negotiation chapters, and it is still unknown when they will be closed.
When the EU’s Western Balkans Strategy was announced in February 2018, Miščević was optimistic and assumed that Serbia could conclude the negotiation process by 2023, in order to join the EU by 2025.
“I want to believe that the rediscovery of the Western Balkans by the European Commission is economically and politically important for the EU, because we can help and contribute to the EU. It’s that win-win strategy that produces the most results,” Miščević said at the time.
Since then, however, only five new negotiation chapters have been opened, including only one in 2019. Serbia’s EU accession process has obviously slowed down, which has been interpreted as the result EU’s dissatisfaction with the pace of reforms in Serbia, especially in the Chapters 23 and 24, which concern the rule of law.
It is unknown whether the Government of Serbia will appoint a new Head of EU negotiation team, or whether it will merge this function with the position of Minister for European Integration, as is the case in Montenegro.