Serbia is the only candidate country for membership in the European Union from the Western Balkans that did not comply with the three new foreign policy decisions of the Union on Ukraine, Russia and Venezuela, while it complied with the decisions related to the situations in North Korea, Mali and Haiti.
“With the three new decisions of the Council of the EU, all other candidates for membership in the Union from the region, namely North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and BiH, have complied, which will ensure that their national policies are in line with it, and the EU takes note of this obligation and welcomes it,” the EU announced.
Serbia did not comply with the decision which expanded the list of individuals and entities against which restrictive measures are applied due to violations or threats to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
It also did not comply with the decision on restrictive measures against individuals and entities due to the situation in Venezuela, the violation of democracy and the rule of law, the violation of human rights and the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition, including the events after the presidential elections.
Also, Serbia did not comply with the decision that expanded the list of persons and entities against which restrictive measures are applied due to Russia’s destabilizing activities.
Serbia, together with other candidates for EU membership, complied with three new decisions on expanding the list of persons and entities to which restrictive measures apply against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, due to the situation in Haiti, and restrictive measures due to the situation in Mali.
Serbia began negotiations on accession to the European Union in January 2014 and has so far opened 22 out of 35 negotiation chapters, while temporarily closing only two. But negotiations with Serbia have been practically frozen since December 2021, when it opened the last chapters.
Although the European Commission assessed in its progress report that Serbia is technically ready for the opening of cluster 3, the cluster was not opened even in 2025 because the consent of all member states is required.
The member states of the European Union announced that in order to open negotiating cluster 3, it is necessary for Serbia to make “further progress in the area of the rule of law and the normalization of relations with Kosovo”, and the postponement of the decision followed after it became clear that there is no necessary consensus among the member states on the opening of cluster 3 for Serbia.
In the two most recent reports on the progress of Serbia – at the end of 2024 and 2025, the European Commission indicated that there is no progress in the functioning of democratic institutions, governance and freedom of the media, and free expression of opinion, with increased repression by the authorities during the anti-government protests that began at the end of 2024. The cluster includes eight chapters: digital transformation and media; taxation; economic and monetary policy; social policy and employment, entrepreneurship and industrial policy; science and research; education and culture; customs union.
Of those eight chapters, Serbia had already opened five of them before the change in the negotiation methodology. The new methodology was adopted at the beginning of 2020 and foresees that instead of individual chapters, more will be opened that are connected in six clusters, six thematic units.
The Serbian authorities maintain that Serbia has fulfilled the conditions for opening cluster 3, although Serbia is regressing in the process of accession to the Union and has not opened a single chapter in the last four years, writes N1 BiH.
