Schengen & free market first: Serbia open to “gradual” EU integration | Nemanja Starović

More than a decade after opening its negotiations to join the EU, Serbia remains in the bloc’s waiting room, with no progress in the negotiations made since 2021. And with the bloc suffering from what Nemanja Starović, Serbian Minister of European Integration, calls “enlargement fatigue,” the prospect of another expansion that would include several countries seems unrealistic by the end of the decade, in his opinion.

“We must acknowledge that there are a lot of impediments to the real, substantial enlargement of the European Union, meaning candidate countries becoming full-fledged member states,” Starović said, citing the already existing problems the bloc struggles with in decision-making processes. “We cannot remain oblivious to that; ... and do whatever we can to bring certain benefits to our people and to our economy along the road to the full membership, with which, of course, remains on the horizon.”

“But if that is the case, for the time being, we should not ignore any possibility to structurally integrate in the European Union, maybe even without the full membership, full voting rights, etc.,” the European Integration Minister said, adding that a “gradual integration,” for example joining the EU single market and Schengen area first “can bring great benefits not just for us, our citizens, and our economy, but I really strongly believe to the European Union as well.”

Join TVP World’s Paweł Trzaskowski and his guest, to find out whether the Western Balkans are now being sidelined on the accession path in favor of Ukraine and Moldova; which of Serbia's regional neighbors have taken over in their progress toward integration and which are lagging behind, and how long Belgrade can maintain the strategy of balancing between the EU, China, and Russia.

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