No negotiations between EU and Serbia before January

Despite all the praises from Brussels and Berlin for Serbia's efforts on its path to the EU, it is almost for certain that EU accession talks for our country will start January 2014 as planned, Tanjug cites its European sources in Brussels.

- There is a theoretical chance of the EU Council deciding at its summit in October to commence the talks earlier, but the probability of this to happen is really minimal - a European Union official who insisted on remaining anonymous told Tanjug news agency.

He thus responded to speculations that Germany is abandoning its harsh policy towards Serbia and that - due to a progress made in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, which was officially commended the other day by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton - negotiations could start as early as this year.

People in Brussels say that the start date for EU accession talks for Serbia does not depend on the political resistance to Serbia's admission to the EU, which is really reduced, but on procedural reasons and the preoccupation of European institutions with the situation in Syria.

The European Commission will field a regular report on Serbia's progress in the European integration process in mid-October, but Tanjug's interlocutors from Brussels say that it is most likely that the chiefs of states and governments who will gather at a summit in Brussels that month will not officially discuss the topics related to the EU enlargement on that occasion.

- Everybody waits to see how the new German government will look like, and it is almost for sure that it won't be formed by the end of October, while an even more important thing is the outcome of local elections in Kosovo in November - said the EU official.

He reminded that the EU Council traditionally discussed enlargement issues at December summits, so that the first interstate conference to officially open accession talks with Serbia will most probably be held in January.