Ambassador Michael Davenport, Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia
The old Serbian saying goes that tough going sorts out the men from the boys, and there is a similar English one saying that you know your friends in time of trouble. Along with other friends of Serbia, EU countries immediately came to Serbia’s help during May 2014 floods. Indeed more than 400 personnel from 14 Member States came here to save lives and pump out floodwater during the first days after the floods, working through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
But it is the EU which is continuing to lead efforts to relieve flood consequences having rebuilt so far over 1000 houses and 15 Serbian schools and kindergartens in the flooded areas. Over 16,000 Serbian farmers have received vital support from the EU in the form of animal feed, fertilisers, seeds, seedlings, greenhouses and equipment. 468 Serbian small businesses were saved from the brink of bankruptcy by EU grants. The grants helped them restore their production and enabled hundreds of people to return to work. During my visits to the flooded areas I have been moved by the relief and gratitude of ordinary citizens returning to their homes and jobs.
Serbia is rightly trying to prepare better for future natural disasters. As before, the EU is here to help Serbia in that effort, notably through better flood prevention and mapping of flood-prone areas. In this respect Serbia is already treated as a member of the European Union, and has, therefore, been given €62 million from the EU’s Solidarity Fund – in addition to some €110 million from IPA and regional funds for tackling the floods. Serbia joined the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in April in order to play a full part in joint efforts to deal with natural disasters.
Serbia has made its strategic choice in applying to become a member of the European Union. The European Union and its Member States have welcomed that choice by making Serbia an official candidate for membership and – last year – opening negotiations for membership. The European Union is committed to welcoming all the countries of the Balkans as members. Without their accession the European project of reconciliation and unification will not be complete.
Solidarity goes to the heart of Serbia’s modernisation and economic recovery. The EU and its Member States have given Serbia more than €3 billion in non-refundable grants to Serbia since 2000. This will continue at a rate of some €200 million annually. We are working together to improve education, regional and rural development, energy, road and rail infrastructure, air and water quality and waste management, build an independent and effective justice system, support fight against corruption, improve health and social services, increase competitiveness, accessing EU programmes for researchers and students, reforming the public administration to deliver better services to citizens. After accession EU structural funds for Serbia are expected to reach up to €1.4 billion annually, equivalent today to 4% of GDP. Serbia will need to be ready to use these funds for the benefit of its people for projects that could be clearly seen and felt. Hence, Serbia’s strategic choice makes sense in every way.
This strategic choice is also reflected on economy for the EU is absolutely Serbia’s number one partner in terms of trade, investment, loans and assistance. Nearly two thirds of Serbia’s trade is with countries of the EU’s single market, which also offers the main potential for growth in Serbian exports. For instance, exports from Serbia to Italy or Germany alone are significantly higher than Serbia’s exports to Russia, China, Turkey and the USA combined. The EU is also by far the biggest investor in Serbia. From 2005 to mid-2014 it has invested €13.5 billion in Serbia, or 76.5% of all Serbia’s foreign direct investment (FDI). The EU has made available to Serbia some €6 billion in favourable credit.
MORE THAN 64% OF SERBIA’S EXPORTS GO TO THE EU (Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia)
Of course Serbia’s choice to join the EU is not just based on material benefit. Understandably, ordinary people in Serbia and elsewhere in this region have a deep yearning for the quality of life and respect for common values which membership of the EU has assured for half a billion of its citizens. What makes the EU unique and appealing is that you can be a member, feel free and have more opportunities of living the life that you want to live, but still remain what you are.
Most EU countries are relatively small like Serbia. Yet they do not feel dominated or oppressed by the big ones. On the contrary, they believe that being in the Union helps them to defend their interests much more effectively. They all have a voice at the European table.
The EU is a family of Member States whose citizens believe and uphold common values and live by jointly agreed rules, sharing responsibilities and rewards of freedom, security, justice, European citizenship, and of a single market unrivalled anywhere in the world.
Many of our societies have in recent decades emerged from dictatorship or authoritarian rule or fought against such regimes. No-one can therefore take for granted proper respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality or the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. For EU citizens these are not empty words – but rather values which lie at the heart of a democratic system of checks and balances that goes from local level to national and to EU level. Any European country wishing to become a member of the Union must respect these values. I believe that every decent citizen in Serbia can subscribe to all of these values with an easy heart.
65 years of European integration and more than 30 years of successive enlargements have transformed a continent of age-old divisions into a unique community of more than 500 million people, a place where war between its members is unthinkable, an area that has some of the highest living standards in the world, where the richer help the poorer more than anywhere else, where solidarity is the cornerstone of policy-making. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU in 2012 is the proof of global recognition of these achievements.
According to opinion polls, nearly 60% of all Serbian adult citizens support or strongly support the goal of EU membership, knowing that it will bring a better future. Serbia started accession negotiations last year. A few weeks ago we completed the first step – a full assessment of Serbia’s preparedness to implement EU law in all negotiation chapters. For opening of the first chapters Serbia needs to show progress in key areas, first and foremost the rule of law, but also by implementing agreements reached in the EU-facilitated dialogue with Pristina.
Membership is no longer just a hope: it is a genuine prospect and expectation. And it is our joint duty to make it a reality as soon as possible.
Serbia has made its choice. Serbian people have the moral and material support and good will of EU Member States in taking the path to membership. Let us now press ahead to make it happen!
