Today, European Parliament’s facilitators, MEPs Vladimir Bilcik and Tanja Fajon, as well as former MEPs Knut Fleckenstein and Eduard Kukan, endorsed a “draft working document” in preparation of the next round of the Inter-Party Dialogue on 17-18 September in Belgrade.

The document focusses on improving conditions for political competition in view of the upcoming election campaign in Serbia. It builds on the momentum created by the July Inter-Party Dialogue and takes into account the previous consultation process as well as recommendations from the international community. It aims in particular at issues related to the equitable access to media and the integrity of the electoral process.

“With this draft working document we want to make a constructive contribution to the Dialogue with concrete suggestions and proposals. However, the key to reach an agreement lies within the hands of the IPD participants themselves. Their political will and their willingness to compromise will be decisive for the outcome”, underlined the EP-facilitators. They also stressed that they will do their utmost to help paving the way towards a political agreement.

The draft working document will be made available to all IPD participants by the end of this week in order to give them sufficient time to react ahead of the next IPD round. This week the EP-facilitators will also meet with the Speaker of the Serbian National Assembly, Ivica Dacic, to discuss the further preparations of the Dialogue process.