Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret handed the Report of the European Commission today to the Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia Vladimir Orlić and thanked him to have had an opportunity to discuss the recommendations of the Annual Report.
Ambassador Giaufret recalled that the report highlighted the need for Serbia to progressively align with EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, and also reiterated specifically the parts of the report on rule of law. The Russian aggression to Ukraine has put enlargement at the centre of the political attention and this is the time to be together and accelerate the pace of reform. The report highlighted that further work and political commitment were needed to continue and deepen reforms and address shortcomings, in particular in the key areas of the judiciary, fight against corruption and organised crime, media freedom, freedom of assembly and the domestic handling of war crimes.
“In particular, Serbia should adopt the legislation needed to apply the constitutional changes in practice within the foreseen deadlines, to effectively strengthen the independence of the judiciary and the autonomy of the prosecution, and to tackle undue influence”, Ambassador Giaufret stated.
The Ambassador stressed also that the Report gives credit to improvements of the electoral framework through implementation of the measures identified during the inter-party dialogue and some of the ODIHR recommendations.
“It will now be important that all OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe recommendations are fully implemented well ahead of any new elections and through an inclusive and transparent process”, the Ambassador emphasized and finally stated that the Report recognised the fact that there was now a more pluralistic Parliament.
