EU revives membership talks on Turkey, Serbia

The European Union revived Turkey’s membership bid on December 14 and opened accession talks with Serbia, underlining how the migration crisis and Russia’s presence in the Balkans has prompted the EU to rethink plans of not expanding.

A year after EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said Brussels needed a pause in its policy of admitting new members, the recent events have driven officials to revive membership talks to seek influence and stability abroad.

It is, however, unlikely that either Turkey or Serbia will join the world’s largest trading bloc in the near future. The EU hopes that formal negotiations on different areas of its chapters or rules will help tackle multiple crises on its borders.

“The refugee crisis and terrorism shows us that we are on the same continent, we are facing the same challenges and the more we develop common policies, the better off we will be,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

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