EU also to raise Russian Center issue

The EU, too, intends to press Serbia over the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center (RSHC), Vecernje Novosti writes on Thursday.

The Belgrade newspaper adds that the shutting down of the center, located in southern Serbia, could be made a condition for chapter 31 in Serbia's EU accession negotiations.

According to the report, "Brussels could ask Serbia, as a condition to open chapter 31, that the center and its staff not be granted diplomatic status, while the possibility that the EU could demand its closure is not ruled out."

The daily recalls that the screening report for this chapter - which concerns foreign policy and security - has not yet been submitted to Belgrade, and adds that this document is now "blocked" because the Baltic countries and Poland insist on integrating a number of demands into it, relelated to weakening the ties between Serbia and Russia - ...