Speaking to her Slovenian colleagues, the Chairperson of the European Integration Committee Marinika Tepic said that, so far, Serbia has opened four negotiation chapters and hopes to open further three, technically completely ready, chapters by the end of the year.

“We are fully aware of the importance of Chapter 35 which reflects on all the other negotiation chapters, making the process not only technical but actually a political one”, said Tepic.

She thanked the Slovenian parliamentarians for their support of Serbia’s path to Europe and the process of opening new negotiation chapters, briefing them on the European Integration Committee’s scope of activity and the role the National Assembly and the Committee, as well as civil society, play in the EU talks.

The Chair of the Slovenian Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Policy Jozef Horvat said that Slovenia openly and clearly supports Serbia’ European integration and that its Parliament’s endorsement is absolutely genuine. He opined that Serbia’s reforms are successful, evidenced by the opening of four negotiation chapters, which the Slovenian Parliament had nothing but positive assessments for. Slovenia’s Parliamentary Friendship Group with Serbia comprises a quarter of all the MPs, said Horvat, commending the establishment of the PFG with Slovenia in the National Assembly.

“Though the EU has its problems, and there are Euro-sceptics everywhere, the enlargement process is our strongest political weapon”, said Horvat.

Kamal Izidor Shaker, member of the delegation of the Slovenian Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Policy and Chair of the Committee on EU Affairs, said that Chapter 35 cannot be the reason not to open other negotiation chapters, adding that Slovenia stands ready to help Serbia in the process. He invited the Chairperson and members of the European Integration Committee to visit Slovenia in the first half of next year.

The Serbian and Slovenian parliamentarians discussed the impact of Brexit on the enlargement policy, regional cooperation and stability, granting the status of minority to Serbs living in Slovenia, improving economic cooperation and the contribution of minority communities in Serbia to the integration process.

The meeting was attended by European Integration Committee members Marko Blagojevic, Haji Milorad Stosic, Elvira Kovacs, Zarko Micin, Vesna Markovic, Dr Muamer Bacevac and Zvonimir Djokic, as well as the Chairman of the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee Dr Vladimir Orlic, and on the Slovenian side by the Deputy Chair of the Committee on Foreign Policy Branislav Rajic.