The EU ministers for European Affairs approved the negotiating mandate for the accession negotiations with Serbia.
On 17 December, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Antanas Linkevičius, chair of the General Affairs Council said about the accession negotiations with Serbia. “We congratulate Serbia on the imminent start of negotiations. We look forward to the first intergovernmental conference in January. We also commended Belgrade and Pristina for good progress in their dialogue, noting that the work on the implementation of the April agreement must continue as many challenges remain.”
European Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle told reporters in Brussels on December 18, that Greece as the EU's future chairing nation informed the EU's foreign ministers in Brussels that it planned on holding an intergovernmental conference between the EU and Serbia on January 21, which will mark the start of membership talks between Serbia and the EU. However, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said that the Ministers did not agree on the exact date yet.
Still, an EU official told Serbian news agency b92, there is logic for January 21, because the Council of European Affairs Ministers will be on that day. Moreover, the official explained that Greece is able to call the intergovernmental conference on its own, without a new meeting of the EU Council.
According to the Serbian website, several Member States were against including the normalisation clause with Pristina in the integration talks with Serbia. However, Germany insisted in the addition of the clause, requesting the inclusion of the term “full normalization.” In order, to find a common ground solution the Lithuanian Presidency came up with a milder wording in regard with Belgrade and Pristina relations.