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Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica emphasised that bringing countries closer to the EU, or the process of EU integration, involves speeding up the necessary reforms by strengthening the rule of law, which includes building trustworthy law enforcement authorities and fighting corruption, whilst developing the economy and facilitating societal integration. Bringing countries closer to the EU also increases stability and security in Europe as a whole by reducing the likelihood of conflict and combatting illegal migration and organised crime.
Participating in the debate on behalf of the Council, the Parliamentary State Secretary gave a positive assessment of Montenegro's progress and said that further chapters of the accession negotiations will be opened during the Latvian Presidency.
The Council was pleased with the progress made by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in bringing its legislation closer to the EU, while emphasising the need for political will to implement the reforms.
Accession talks with Serbia were formally launched in January 2014, but in order to open talks on the first chapters it is necessary to see further progress in the dialogue on the normalisation of relations with Kosovo. In the near future, the EU plans to conclude a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo.
The discussions in the European Parliament took place in advance of Wednesday’s vote on resolutions assessing progress over the past year in the EU integration process for these four western Balkan countries. The European Commission prepares annual progress reports on EU candidate countries and potential candidates which are then discussed in both the EU Council and the European Parliament.
Each month the European Parliament meets in four-day plenary sessions (from Monday to Thursday) in Strasbourg. Once a month, the European Parliament meets for an additional one-day session in Brussels.
