Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated today, after Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Emanuele Giaufret handed her over the 2023 Report of the European Commission (EC) on Serbia, that the EC recognised clear progress of our country in all key areas.
Q:
A:
EC Report on Serbia records no backsliding in any area
Belgrade,
8 November 2023
Brnabic pointed out that in the Report no area is mentioned in which backsliding has been recorded compared to last year’s report.
According to her, progress has been recorded in all areas, except for three areas where stagnation has been recorded, like fisheries, for example, where we have not adopted a specific action plan.
Progress has been recorded in all key areas - the rule of law, the economy and the area of basic rights, the Prime Minister pointed out, expressing her gratitude to the EC for their work and effort to evaluate the reforms in Serbia in the last 12 months.
The Prime Minister said that the progress in the field of judiciary was better rated than last year.
We did a pretty good job there, and it was noted that a number of steps have been taken to reduce the space for political influence on the judiciary, she said, adding that this is something that all citizens of Serbia should be proud of.
Brnabic assessed that it was a difficult reform that was implemented, whereby the government had no incentive from civil society organizations, from relevant organisations that say they are in favour of European integration, nor from the opposition, which is oriented towards that goal.
She also pointed out that Serbia had limited progress in the fight against corruption, noting that we would have had a better score if we had adopted a strategy for the fight against corruption.
We have to work faster on that and on time. We left things until the last minute, hoping to get comments from the European Commission quickly. We worked with GRECO, which had additional comments on the proposed strategy, and we wanted to do a good document, and that is why we were late, she explained.
The Prime Minister said that she guarantees that the Government will create the strategy in the next two to three months and take into consideration all other recommendations of the Council of Europe and the European Commission.
It is important that in 2022 there was an increase in the number of final verdicts for high-level corruption cases compared to 2021, and we have made good progress there. This is what is specifically measured, and we have a large number of new investigations. These are indicators that are important for our citizens, said Brnabic.
Giaufret noted that the basis of all the decisions made by the European Commission, related to the European Commission's Report on Serbia for 2023, is that enlargement occupies a central place in EU policy, adding that the opportunity exists and should be used.
He said that together with the Report, he handed over to the Prime Minister the new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, which was part of this package, and for which the European Commission proposed to set aside €6 billion - €2 billion in grants and €4 billion in soft loans.
The key message that came from Brussels is that this is not a package like every year, it is different, it is historic, Giaufret stated.
Archive 2023Author:
Tanjug
