It is almost certain that Serbia won’t open a single EU accession negotiation chapter this year. And this year will be, according to this criterion, the worst since the start of negotiations. But even more important is the fact that the number of criteria for membership is increasing, which we’ve imposed on ourselves, and interest in enlargement within the EU is weak
The new enlargement methodology, adopted in March 2020, puts even more emphasis on the rule of law and democratic institutions, precisely the areas where Serbia faces the greatest problems, says our interlocutor Nikola Burazer, Programme Director at the Centre for Contemporary Politics and the Executive Editor of the European Western Balkans. This is probably the most daunting problem when it comes to the longterm prospects of the pace of enlargement.