BELGRADE (Serbia), April 11 (SeeNews) – Brexit does not make Serbia waver in its efforts to successfully negotiate its accession to the European Union (EU), the chief economist in the country’s negotiating team and board chairman of Komercijalna banka [BEL:KMBN], Vladimir Krulj, has said.
Although it is difficult to estimate what the EU will look like after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, Serbia is convinced that the success of its membership talks is in the best economic and political interests of the country, Krulj has said in an interview for Radio BBC World Service on Tuesday, according to a press release issued by Komercijalna banka.
"Serbia is a small country and needs to attract investment in order to have sustainable economic growth. The Serbian government led by prime minister Aleksandar Vucic conducted a comprehensive and very successful programme of fiscal consolidation," Krulj has told the BBC.
Krulj noted that two-thirds of the total foreign investment in Serbia is coming from the EU and about 90% of newly established foreign companies in Serbia are from EU member states.
"These are the pragmatic reasons why Serbia wants to accept the European rule of law and the European institutions in full capacity," he pointed out.
Although Serbia is a small country without access to the EU's structural funds - unlike the member states of the bloc - it has achieved a fiscal deficit of 1.4%, which is much better than most EU countries, Krulj said .
The EU accession of all Western Balkan states is also in the interest of the Union, as in this way the EU would keep stability in the region. Moreover, if all Western Balkan countries integrate into a system with clear rules and become a well-developed single market, there would be less problems in the future, Krulj added.
EU formally opened accession talks with Serbia in January 2014. Belgrade has so far started talks on eight of the 35 chapters of EU law and has closed negotiations on two.