Netherlands to Block Serbia's Path to EU Due to Inconsistency With European Policies

The Netherlands has vowed to block the opening of the next negotiating cluster in the talks on Serbia's accession to the European Union. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp told reporters in Brussels on Monday, NL Times reports.

According to Veldkamp, Serbia has not shown sufficient progress in the rule of law to move forward with membership negotiations.

‘At the same time, we see insufficient progress in relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Serbia also has a clear responsibility there. We see that Serbia is still not sufficiently aligning its foreign policy with the EU's foreign policy,’ he added.

The Dutch foreign minister also wants to convince other EU countries to support the blocking of the opening of the negotiation cluster in order to ‘put pressure on Serbia now’.

‘Given the disturbing developments in Hungary and partly in Slovakia, it is logical that we can make demands on the EU candidate country in the area of the rule of law,’ Veldkamp explained.

The decision to open the cluster is to be agreed by the EU member states before the intergovernmental conference to be held on 16-20 December. There has been no progress at previous meetings of EU permanent representatives.

Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009, and in March 2012, the country was granted candidate status.

However, Serbia's European integration path has been slowed down by concerns about its retreat from democracy and close ties with Russia and China, especially its refusal to join sanctions over Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

The Serbian government continues to declare its desire for European integration, but frankly says that it does not expect to join the EU in the near future.