Serbia EU membership bid faces range of hurdles

Tomas Valasek, with London's Centre for European Reform, says Serbia's membership bid comes at a difficult time. "The Serbian situation has not been helped by the reality and the fact that lots of EU member states have really got cold feet on further enlargement. Quite a few, especially the older member states, feel that the EU has already enlarged too far, too fast and that we now need a period of rest and a pause, rather than rushing into another enlargement. Having said that, the EU is committed to enlarging eventually to the western Balkans. But quite a few member states may want to drag out the process because they don't want to accept too many new member states anytime soon," he said.