Following the presentation of Annual Progress Report for Serbia by European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Fule in Brussels, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport handed it to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and then discussed with journalists Report’s key parts such as necessity to continue normalisation of the relations with Pristina, the need for progressive alignment of Serbian foreign and security policy with those of the EU, as well as the situation in media, justice and other fundamental areas.
Davenport said that in the coming period of EU accession process it was highly important that Serbia be engaged in a comprehensive normalisation of its relations with Pristina, and that “full implementation of last year’s Agreement between Serbia and Kosovo is expected”.
“This year, such an implementation was difficult to achieve, given the elections in both Serbia and Kosovo… We want to see a momentum in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo generated as soon as possible,” Davenport said, adding that, however, there was some progress in the implementation of the agreements reached.
He said that, when it comes to Serbia, Europe would place its attention on areas of fundamental rights, justice reform, efficient fight against corruption and discrimination.
Talking about the part of Report concerning situation in media, Davenport said the State was obliged to provide conditions for smooth media operation, regardless of who threatened their work.
According to him, Serbian authorities ought to take concrete measures against all who jeopardized the freedom of speech and hacked web-sites, especially during May floods.
The state of media in any country, and not just in Serbia, was a result of various very complicated factors, Davenport said, adding it was clear that both journalists and journalist organisations must set standards and abide by them, so that journalists could govern their profession on their own.
As one of the problems, he cited information leakage from prosecution office and other state authorities, saying it was administration’s problem, but also the problem of journalism profession.
Full implementation of new media laws is an important part of the Media Strategy adopted by Serbian Government, Davenport said.
Davenport said that the EU expected Serbia, being a candidate country, to progressively align its policies within those areas with the EU.
To the question about Serbia-Russia relations, Davenport responded that Serbia had every right to build good relations with Russia as all the EU Members intended to do the same, taking into account that some of them had extensive trade cooperation with Russia.
He, however, stressed that the EU had taken measures against Russia because it believed that Russia led an unacceptable policy regarding Ukraine, and the EU expected other countries, even those granted a candidate status, to support its measures.
Serbia has said rather clearly that it respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which is in line with EU’s policy, and not in line with Russia’s one, Davenport said.
Everyone understands Serbia wants to develop good relations with Russia and that Serbia has its own interests in cooperation with Russia, Davenport said, but added that Serbia ought to progressively align its foreign and security policies with those of the EU.
