Serbia debate in the European Parliament

The European Parliament held a debate on the report on Serbia written by the rapporteur, Jelko Kacin; I was the shadow rapporteur for the EPP. This was my contribution to the debate.

 

Congratulations to Mr Kacin, this is a thorough and cogent report.

Serbia has been granted candidate status and, at the same time, elections are to be held in early May. Hence this report can serve as a guide for the next Serbian government in its stance towards Europe.

A great deal has been done to make Serbia’s accession feasible, and the country should receive due credit for these efforts. However, and the report makes this clear, this does not mean that all is done and dusted, far from it.

There are many areas where the Serbian system of government and, for that matter, governance, demand a major overhaul before they meet EU criteria. One of these areas is very serious – this is where legal provision is used, indeed abused, to eliminate competition and to stultify the market in favour of insiders. It is all the worse that this practice is undertaken in the name of the fight organised crime.

Then, there is Kosovo. All candidate countries have to come to terms with their neighbours, whatever the antecedents. This means that Serbia has to confront Kosovo’s independence and abandon illusions that somehow, one day, Kosovo will again be a part of the Serbian state. It will not.

Third, while Serbia has made a number of steps in the direction of providing equal status for its non-Serbian minorities, Serbia’s citizenship concept is not yet sufficiently inclusive to provide full rights to some non-Serbian groups, notably the Romanian-speakers of the Timok valley and the Bulgarian minority. The model developed in the Vojvodina, of minority councils, should be extended to the rest of the country.

The next government will have plenty on its plate.

Sch. Gy.