Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic warns blockade of Serbia's EU membership

Croatia has warned that it will condition Serbia's EU integration with the solution to a number of conflicts that are between the two countries.

Relations between Zagreb and Belgrade are far from melting, taking into account Croatia's President Kolinda Grabar Kitanovic's statement, which has warned that prior to resolving bilateral conflicts, it will not allow Serbia's EU membership.

Grabar Kitanovic has said that, within the EU and Serbia's negotiation process, Zagreb will condition Serbia's progress on reaching agreements on open issues between the two states, which deal with borders, minorities, the fate of the unconscious, success and jurisdiction. She has stressed that these topics will always be opened under the negotiating chapters 23 and 24 (Justice and rule of law), as well as that these areas will remain open too long, and that Serbia needs years to meet these conditions.

One of Croatia and Serbia's biggest disputes concerns final demarcation of the border, and contesting are 11,000 hectares of land along the Danube. Croatia also urges Serbia to secure guaranteed seats in parliament for representatives of the Croatian minority. Incompatibility also exists in connection with the sharing of former RSFJ property, as well as the eventual dawn of the fate of the missing in war. One of the major problems Croatia often raises is the issue of universal jurisdiction, either that Zagreb opposes Belgrade's right to try war crimes committed across the territory of the former joint state.