European Union Ambassador Sem Fabrizi said on Monday that Serbia urgently needs to implement rule of law reforms to achieve progress towards EU membership.

He told the Serbian state TV (RTS) that the government needs to focus on reforms which show results, not just “abstract reform concepts”. The job this year is for Serbia to focus on reforms, especially in rule of law, he said and added that every EU member state has to be convinced that Serbia has progressed. He said that the reform process has advanced in Serbia but only in some areas with very little progress in some areas such as rule of law.

Fabrizi said that it’s too early to say whether Serbia will open more chapters in the pre-accession negoations in June and added that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is not a condition to open more chapters but that normalization of relations is part of the process. He said that the new government in Pristina has to focus on the dialogue following the recent elections.