Serbia's European Union accession talks began in Brussels on Tuesday and are expected to last several years. The Serbian delegation at the opening session was headed by Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and all twenty-eight Member States were also represented. MFA Minister of State for EU Affairs Enikő Győri attended the first meeting of the Serbian accession talks on behalf of Hungary.

Speaking at the press conference following the meeting, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle called the day a historic one, while Ivica Dacic claimed that this was the most important event since World War II, because his country - which used to be considered more "western" than other communist countries, but then lost a lot of time and significantly fell behind - has finally set out on the path leading to joining the community of European nations. How Serbia - which has not recognised the independence of Kosovo - shapes its relations with its former provinces was not only a precondition for the talks but will remain a point of consideration.

As Enikő Győri put it, the issue of Pristina-Belgrade dialogue "will continuously be hovering over the entire accession process". The negotiating mandate discussed last month luckily does not allow "immediate suspension of talks" should the Serbia-Kosovo relationship take a turn for the worse, she added, referring to the fact that there were some EU Member States - Germany and the UK according to analysts familiar with the talks - that wanted the Kosovo-related criteria to be included in each negotiating chapter. The position at the other end of the spectrum was that the criteria of normalising Serbia's relations with Kosovo should be mentioned in Chapter 35, "Miscellaneous".  The compromise reached mentions the requirement of settling the Serbia-Kosovo relationship at the general assessment level in Chapter 35, and at the same time attaches appropriate significance in each negotiating chapter to the "Kosovo aspect". A motion to condemn Serbia for any step taken against normalising its relations with Kosovo and therefore to suspend the EU accession talks would have to obtain qualified support from the 28 EU Member States.

Hungary will do its utmost to promote the EU accession process of Serbia - Enikő Győri emphasised. "When I met the Serbian Prime Minister, I told him ’Welcome to the negotiating table, dear neighbour’.” She added that the commencement of Serbia's accession talks is a milestone in relations between the Western Balkans and the European Union.

The Hungarian Minister of State recalled that Hungary left no doubt that it wanted its neighbours to join the community that Hungary joined roughly ten years ago. "We all know from history that Hungarian-Serbia relations have not been easy. There are problems and issues that need to be resolved", Enikő Győri said. She also highlighted that Hungary also expects Serbia to address minority rights appropriately and that "this was not a bilateral but a European issue.”

The Hungarian Minister of State for EU affairs pointed out that Serbia, "which only recently was ravaged by war", has undergone substantial changes during the past ten years. This "shows that the perspective of EU accession has a very significant transformative power".

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)