June 26 (SeeNews) - Serbia expects to complete successfully its negotiations for accessing the European Union (EU) in 2024, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday.
"I believe that we will receive an official confirmation [for the completion of EU accession talks] in 2024," Vucic said, according to a statement posted on his personal webpage.
The EU Commission will officially announce the date of the resumption of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue for normalisation of relations on June 29 or June 30, Vucic said after a meeting with the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in Brussels.
Earlier on Friday, Von der Leyen said the EU Commission considers the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue for normalisation of relations to be a key factor for the EU integration of Serbia. "After the elections, a broad dialogue with all political forces is needed to move ahead with reforms needed to bring Serbia closer to the EU. The dialogue with Kosovo is key. We will also support Serbia’s post-pandemic recovery," Von der Leyen said in her Twitter profile.
Von der Leyen also held a meeting with newly-elected Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti in Brussels late on Thursday, a day after Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was accused of war crimes by a special international prosecutor in The Hague. "Grateful he chose Brussels for his first trip abroad. We will support Kosovo in the necessary reforms on its path to the EU and in post-pandemic recovery."
Thaci cancelled his trip to the US after the publication of the indictment by the SPO, the Kosovo president's office said in a statement on Wednesday. He was expected to take part in the dialogue process between Pristina and Belgrade at the White House on June 27. Hoti joined Thaci in withdrawing from the meeting shortly before speaking with Von der Leyen.
The EU special representative for the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said earlier this week that the EU-facilitated dialogue for normalisation of relations will resume in July in Brussels.
The Pristina-Belgrade dialogue, launched in 2010, aims for the parties to achieve a comprehensive legally binding agreement solving all outstanding issues in order to progress on their European integration path.
Serbia withdrew from the dialogue in November 2018, after Kosovo's government decided to increase an import tax on all goods produced in Serbia and Bosnia to 100% from 10% set earlier that month, saying the move aimed to protect Kosovo’s sovereignty and interests. Belgrade started accession talks with the EU in January 2014 and has already opened 18 of the 35 chapters of the EU body of law, two of which were provisionally closed.