00:15
Chatting room where Mr Rehn and his team from DG Enlargement are answering questions coming from the young people from the Western Balkans (WB). OLLI REHN (speaking after the chat): 01:20
I've learned that people in the WB are concerned about the political crisis in which EU is for the moment. But I want to ensure them like I did in the chat room that the commitment of EU is maintained and reconfirmed at the EU Council in June. We work for the stability, prosperity and increased democracy in the WB as long as the countries in the WB do their part of the work 02:02
All 25 member states have just in June reconfirmed their existing commitments which covers Romania and Bulgaria who may join the Union once they are ready, it covers Croatia and Turkey which will start accession negotiations with the EU once they meet the strict criteria; and it covers the commitments of the EU for European perspective of WB. I think it is important to consolidate our existing enlargement agenda which means sticking to our existing commitments, but be cautious about taking new ones. My understanding is that the politicians and the ministers who speak about this refer to the possible new commitments, but so far all the governments have reconfirmed the existing commitments including the WB which is very important especially as we just experienced and seen the Srebrenica commemoration ceremony in which I participated also. 03:24
In Bulgaria , the process of building up coalitions is currently ongoing and I am reasonably confident that a new collation government will be formed shortly and Bulgarian government has confirmed that members of parliament will be ready to postpone the start of their summer holidays in the Black sea cost if needed for the legislation of reforms. The new government in Romania which started in Dec last year has in the last six months done lots of legislative reforms and most of the legislative work has been done to meet accession criteria. Still the focus is on implementation, and for that you need a government, but also a care taker government and administration of Romania can implement the lows that have been adopted. It is important that Romania will be able to have a stable government after the elections, and that the care taking government continues with reforms forcefully forward. There are still major shortcomings in Bulgaria , and especially in Romania , regarding judiciary reform and fight against corruption. 05:14
We have waited Albania for quite a long time already as regards negotiations about SAA; therefore few more days will not make any difference. I think quality is more important than urgency and I certainly hope that Albania has been able to hold free and fair elections but we are still waiting for the final assessment of the OSCE and we can give our assessment only after that. 05:54
I will spend my holidays in Lake area in Eastern Finland which is my favourite holiday resort. I received some invitations but I don't think it would be appropriate to spend a holiday in a candidate country on the basisis of individual invitation by persons who I meet only in the chat room. Would he spend his holidays in WB (since he received invitations during the chat) 06:19
The critical for Turkey to start negotiations is to meet criteria set by the Council. If Turkey meets these conditions negotiations will start on the 3 rd October. Same for Croatia – once they meet the remaining criteria of full cooperation with The Hague Tribunal the EU is ready to start negotiations the very same day, when condition is fulfilled. 06:57
We are meeting the timeline to start in early Oct. and it seems also that Council is doing its work rapidly enough so that negations on SAA can start in Oct. The pace of negotiations will depend on the pace of reforms in Serbia and Montenegro which are to the interests of citizens of SM Therefore it is not possible to state any forecast as to when the negotiations will be concluded. We have a dual track approach with SM which facilitates talks both with the Union and with two member republics and this facilitates faster progress and doesn't slow down negotiations unnecessarily because of the complexity of the Union of SM Serbia Montenegro : We are meeting timeline to start in early Oct. and the council also 08:15
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