The fourth meeting of the Accession Conference with Serbia at ministerial level was held in Brussels on 13 December 2016, to open negotiations on Chapter 5 - Public procurement, and to open and provisionally close Chapter 25 - Science and research.

The European Union delegation was led by Mr Miroslav Lajčák, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, on behalf of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The European Commission was represented by Mr Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. The Serbian delegation was led by Ms Jadranka Joksimović, Minister without portfolio responsible for European integration.

With the fourth meeting of the Accession Conference with Serbia, out of a total of 35 negotiation chapters, 6 chapters have now been opened for negotiations of which 1 chapter has already been provisionally closed. Further Accession Conferences will be planned, as appropriate, in order to take the process forward in the first half of 2017. The accession negotiations were launched in January 2014.