The Western Balkans: Resolving Outstanding Issues between Belgrade and Pristina Prerequisite for Serbia's Accession to the EU

PeoplePoliticians ♦ Published: October 18, 2018; 16:12 ♦ (Vindobona)

As international and local pressure mounts on Belgrade and Pristina to define their relations with an agreement on normalization, the official Austrian visit to the Republic of Serbia as part of an economic and cultural delegation headed by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen focused on bilateral economic relations, Serbia's EU perspective and the Belgrade-Priština Dialogue.

Austrian delegation supports EU accession candidate Republic of Serbia despite expectation that the Belgrade - Pristina issue will be resolved beforehand / Picture: © Österreichische Präsidentschaftskanzlei / Peter Lechner/HBF

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and a delegation visited Belgrade for two days.

During the visit, President Van der Bellen noted that the Kosovo question had to be resolved before Serbia could join the EU: "However, further steps in the implementation of the Serbian reform agenda, especially in areas such as the rule of law and the clarification of outstanding…