Miscevic:Opening of chapters waits for go-ahead from Germany

BRUSSELS - Tanja Miscevic, Serbia's chief negotiator for entry talks with the EU, said on Thursday that Germany is the only country that has yet to give the go-ahead for opening the first chapter in the negotiation process.

"We have finished all technical preparations for Chapter 32 that deals with financial control, but Germany has not yet given an approval for it to be opened," Miscevic told reporters in Brussels after the successfully completed round of the screening concerning intellectual property protection.

She said that Germany is bound by the Bundestag's position, which requests that Chapter 35 on the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations be the first to open, and Chapters 23 and 24 on the rule of law, for which preparations are still under way.

Miscevic said she is glad that the screening for Chapter 7 on intellectual property protection has been done on Thursday, which means that Serbia completed the process for 20 out of 35 chapters, and by the end of the next week, the screening will also be over for the chapters on fisheries and environment.

"In the field of intellectual property protection, we have very good legislation, but the implementation is also important," Miscevic said, adding that this field is very significant because of Serbia's entry into the World Trade Organization, which Serbia has to join before acceding to the EU.

The screening process, which determines the degree to which a candidate country's legislation has been harmonized with the EU's acquis, is being done separately for each chapter and is a necessary phase in the negotiation process.

Photo Tanjug, S. Radovanovic (archive)