THESSALONIKI, May 8 - Full-fledged EU membership is the top priority for the new Serbian government, Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said. He made the statement on Thursday at a meeting of EU and Western Balkan foreign ministers in Thessaloniki, Greece. The government is oriented towards completing the accession talks by the end of its term in 2018, and we expect that Serbia could become a full-fledged EU member by 2020 in that case, Dacic said. Serbia is committed to carrying out reforms in all fields - in particular, the rule of law, interior affairs and protection of human and minority rights, Dacic said. "We believe that the EU's new approach, which envisions opening the most difficult chapters - Chapters 23 and 24 - at the very start of the negotiation process, will contribute to a quicker transformation of the state and society and an accelerated negotiation process", the Serbian foreign minister said. The progress of Serbia's European integrations so far shows that we possess adequate administrative capacities and that we are prepared to adopt and implement the EU acquis at short notice, he said. Dacic also said that the new Serbian government is ready to deal with demanding social and economic reforms. Due to the complex economic situation in Serbia and the whole region, the EU should consider the possibility of providing greater economic support to the countries of the region, which could be achieved by reallocating support funds and making part of the funds also available during the accession process, Dacic said. "We are concerned by voices and ideas in the EU that suggest that the Union needs to slow down the process of further enlargement", Dacic said, noting that enlargement has in the past always contributed to the prosperity and inner consolidation of the EU. After each wave of enlargement, the EU emerged stronger, he said. Thanks to the European prospects, all open issues in the region, ranging from refugee-related issues to borders and other problems, are resolved through dialogue, he said, stressing that the European prospects have made an essential contribution to improved regional cooperation. The European prospects were a key factor that ensured the success of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue - the success of the dialogue has shown that the policy of enlargement still represents a strong motivational force in the Western Balkans, the minister said. "We expect everyone to make progress in the continuing enlargement process according to performance and reforms implemented", Dacic stated, and added: "We do not expect to be cut any slack, but we also believe that insisting on artificially equalising the individual paces of integrating aspiring EU member states would be counterproductive". The countries of the region are expected to continue to support each other and maintain the trend of a solidarity-based approach on the path of European integrations, the Serbian foreign minister said.

According to Dacic, the EU will allocate one billion euros for the Western Balkan countries through the IPA funds by 2020, while another EUR 10 billion will be invested in regional projects. Dacic said that this was a matter of discussion at the meeting between today. “One of several priorities in the sphere of energy and transport policy is Corridor 10”, he said. Dacic said that the EU-Western Balkans ministerial meeting once again affirmed the need to integrate the entire region into the EU, adding that all EU member states support this stance. This is very important for Serbia's strategic goal to become an EU member by 2020, he said.