BELGRADE – The Western Balkan nations’ EU membership is a question of timing and hard work by the candidate countries, says Maciej Popowski of the EC Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations.
The EU enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans is “ambitious but realistic”, he told reporters after the conference organised by the European Policy Centre in Serbia.
“If both the government and the civil society take it seriously, then I think the path to accession is now clear – we know it’s going to happen, it’s just a question of timing and hard work.”
“Serbia still needs to work to become a fully functioning market economy. There are questions concerning the judiciary, the rule of law, the functioning of the parliamentary system. What we would like to see is a normalisation of Serbia’s relations with all neighbours” and we “expect that the relationship between Belgrade and Pristina will be normalised,” he said.