European Union foreign ministers recommended at their meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday that accession negotiations with Serbia be opened no later than January next year and that talks begin with Kosovo on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
The recommendation was made to EU leaders who would decide on the matter at their summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
The European Commission expects that based on this recommendation the leaders of the member states would decide to open negotiations with Serbia, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele told a press conference in Luxembourg.
Fuele noted that the recommendation to open negotiations with Serbia no later than January 2014 did not rule out a possibility of talks being opened earlier, possibly in October.
Citing the conclusions of the ministerial meeting, Fuele said that the European Commission would be invited to present a draft negotiating framework, the document necessary for opening accession talks, adding that the Commission was already working on it.
After that, the Council of the EU should adopt the negotiating framework with a view to opening the first intergovernmental accession conference no later than January 2014, the commissioner said.
When asked if another decision on the opening of negotiations would be required after the one to be taken at the summit this week, Fuele said that that would not be necessary and that there would be no further conditions.
