After the first 60 days as the Head of the EU delegation in Serbia, Ambassador Sem Fabrizi gave an interview to Radio Television of Serbia.
Speaking about his career as a diplomat in Rome, Brussels, Geneva, Beijing and Australia in “Oko” talk-show, he said that “being EU ambassador to Serbia is a great experience; is the dream of every EU Ambassador to be posted in an accession country.“
Fabrizi said he saw his work in Serbia to promote European Union and its values, but also to support for Serbia in the accession process. Among the key topics that EU and Serbia have jointly worked on were public administration reform, improvement of trade conditions, refugees, as well as foreign policy, he said.
All steps that are strenghtening a regional dialogue are welcome
Asked for his opinion on regional differences and relations, ambassador Fabrizi indicated that for EU, a “part of enlargement process is to have good relations with your neighbours. In that sense, a regional cooperation supported at the Trieste Summit held in mid-July, is a good example of moving forward and now we expect results for this cooperation to be realised.“
As one of the examples for strenghtening of regional cooperation, Fabrizi noted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s recent visit to Sarajevo. “This is the right way to establish and keep up good relations with a neighbour. This message was delivered to all partners in the region and we are ready to offer our support. All steps that are strenghtening a dialogue are welcome,“ EU ambassador said.
A pace of negotiations depends on reforms that Serbia is implementing
Fabrizi said a pace of EU negotiations, as Serbia has so far opened 10 of 35 chapters, depended on reforms that Serbia has been implementing.
“My role here is to support that process“, he said, adding that EU has “in the past 10 years, donated almost two billion euros in programmes supporting (reforms), which is around 200 million euro annualy for reforms in the public administration and other domains..“
Asked whether he would agree with an opionon that Chapter 35, related to the normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Prisitna, was the most important in the negotiation process, ambassador Fabrizi said that all chapters were important, but some chapters are – according to the negotiating framework – more important to make progress in particular Chapters 23 and 24 which have been opened.
“In regard to Chapter 35, there was a recent meeting in Brussels, with Presidents Vučić and Thaci and that was a good sign that a dialogue exists and we are ready to give our full support,“ he said.
Citizens benefit from EU accession
During an interview, ambassador Fabrizi noted the benefits Serbia has already had from EU accession.
“Figures show that beside two billion euros the EU gave over the past ten years, companies from EU (member states) active in Serbia already employ 200,000 serbian citizens. Two thirds of foreign investments to Serbia come from EU. Serbia has tripled exports to EU in the past seven years.“ He noted that many project are directed to citizens’ benefits, giving an example of settling civil suits, a domain in which, thanks to EU support and cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, “a backlog of more than 1.6 million cases have been settled in the past three years.“
At the end of the interview, Fabrizi has pointed out that in Belgrade, he feels like home, in Rome, adding that he would plan soon to visit Serbia’s countryside.
