BRUSSELS – Serbia opened two new chapters in its EU accession talks – Chapters 20 (enterprise and industrial policy) and 26 (education and culture) – at an EU-Serbia Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in Brussels on Monday.

Chapter 26 was immediately closed at the same meeting as there are no common EU benchmarks for its closure.

This was the fifth EU-Serbia IGC – Serbia has to date opened eight, and temporarily closed two, out of the total 35 negotiation chapters.

In mid-February, the EU member states gave the green light for also opening Chapter 20 after receiving a European External Action Service report on progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

The Serbian delegation was headed by Minister for European Integration Jadranka Joksimovic.