Integration decided by Berlin
27/02/2013 20:30
After two rounds of registrations, only half of fist year quotas in Albanian universities have been filled 12/10 21:22
Balkan turn their eyes to Brussels about their European ambitions, but
the Economist quotes Suzana Grubjesic, Serbia’s deputy prime minister in
charge of European integration, saying that “it is clear that
agreements are made in Brussels but that Berlin makes decisions.”
Grubjesic and Vucic visited Berlin last week, in a delegation made of government members, MPs and representatives from the Serbian presidency.
Vucic discussed Serbian policies at the Bosch foundation, where there were also Croatian and Montenegrin Deputy Prime Ministers.
According to the Economist, some amends in the German legislation in 2009 showed that Bundestag should be consulted for EU enlargement matters.
According to the Economist, “This makes the chamber unique amongst the EU’s 27 parliaments. The Bundestag has exercised this right twice, in voting to approve the opening of accession negotiations with Iceland and Montenegro.
In April the European Commission will make a recommendation as to whether Serbia should open negotiations. Most likely it will recommend that Serbia gets a date to do so, albeit conditioned on the fulfillment of various tasks.
By the time the Bundestag gets to vote on the matter the country will have received two visits from Bundestag members to help them make up their minds.
According to Rainer Stinner, a member of the Bundestag, there are about 50 members who know something about Balkan affairs out of a total of 620.
Last week, after meeting Mr Vucic, Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister left for a finger-wagging trip to Tirana and Skopje and he is also likely to visit Belgrade before the June European Council meeting. In Tirana, he delivered some stern messages.
He demanded that June’s general elections be held properly (Albanian election results are always disputed) and that recent nationalist rhetoric be curbed.
This was as a clear a public message to Sali Berisha, the prime minister, short of actually saying out loud, “shut up””, according to the economist.
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