European Commission's Serbia report: Assessment that Cluster 3 is ready for opening remains in place

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The European Commission's assessment from previous years that Serbia has met the benchmarks for opening Cluster 3 (Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth) and that the cluster is technically ready to be opened remains in force, according to a draft 2026 Enlargement Package that Tanjug has seen.

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The document, which will be presented today in Brussels by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, includes European Commission reports about 10 countries seeking to join the European Union. It also states that the overall pace of Serbia's accession negotiations continues to depend on progress in the areas of the rule of law and the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

The report, covering the period from 1 September 2025 to 1 September 2026, recalls that since Serbia's accession negotiations began in January 2014, 22 of the 35 negotiating chapters have been opened, including all chapters under Cluster 1 (Fundamentals) and Cluster 4 (Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity). Two chapters have also been provisionally closed.

"Achieving Serbia's objectives in the EU accession negotiations requires strong political will, implementation of the necessary reforms, a whole-society approach, effective policy planning and coordination, as well as ensuring sufficient human and financial resources across all institutions involved in the accession process," the report states.

It also notes that anti-European narratives remain present in Serbian media and among political officials. The report claims that the funeral of Ratko Mladic in September 2026, attended by senior state and military officials, contributed to the glorification of Mladic in a manner that contradicts the values underpinning Serbia's path towards European Union membership.

The report further states that early parliamentary elections were held on 25 October and that, according to preliminary results, the "Student List", which emerged from a mass movement of students and citizens, won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats.

The document also addresses the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, noting that domestic political preoccupations on both sides have prevented decisive steps towards implementing the 2023 Agreement on the Path to Normalization and its Implementation Annex, thereby hindering progress in normalizing relations.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)