Serbia opens chapters 20 and 26 in EU accession negotiations

Serbia opened two EU accession negotiation chapters at the International Conference in Brussels held on February 27, bringing the number of chapters opened to 8 of 35. The chapters in question are 20: Enterprise and Industrial Policy and 26: Education and Culture. The chapter 26 was simultaneously opened and temporarily closed, as reported at the press conference following the Intergovernmental Conference.

The minister for European integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, said that this was “good news for Serbia”.

– We are continuing the European integration and will be even more efficient in the future – she said and added that “citizens can be satisfied as well, as Serbia has presented itself as a serious candidate”.

Louis Grech, Deputy Prime Minister of Malta, which is presiding over the EU, said that progress had also been made in preparations for the chapter 29: Customs Union, as well as chapters 6: Company Law and 7: Intellectual Property Law.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, said that the opening of the chapters was an impressive achievement and added that it was good that the focus was on education and entrepreneurship. He reminded that Serbia was already taking part in EU programs in those fields, such as the Erasmus Plus student exchange program and the Cosme program for financing SMEs.

Cadez: Chapters important for Serbian economy opened

The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Marko Cadez, stated that chapters 20 and 26 were very important for the Serbian business community and that the results and the negotiation process regarding chapter 20 would create a future map of national economy.

– The more successful our reforms are, the more efficient and harmonized with standards and principles of European economies our strategies, policies and measures are, the closer we will be not only to positive assessments from Brussels, but to having an environment more stimulating to operations of both large and small and medium enterprises, the development of entrepreneurship and innovations – Cadez said.

He added that successful reforms would enable more foreign and local investments and make local economy more competitive and capable of taking part in the stiff competition expected at the international market.

As he emphasized, the SME sector is the backbone of the EU economic growth, as shown by the fact that, in 2015, around 23 million SMES in EU employed around 70% of the total number of workers and generated nearly three fifths of the added value in the real sector.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo za evropske integracije Republike Srbije

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

Privredna komora Srbije

European integration

EU accession negotiation chapters

chapter 20

chapter 26

Jadranka Joksimovic

Louis Grech

chapter 29

chapter 6

chapter 7

European Commission

Johannes Hahn

Erasmus Plus

Cosme

CCIS

Marko Cadez