Debate: - Reports on Albania – - Reports on Kosovo – - Reports on North Macedonia – - Reports on Serbia
Date: THURSDAY, 25 MARCH 2021
Speaker: Vladimír Bilčík
Country: France
Language: EN

Meanwhile, we have been engaged. We have been engaged through various channels, online and through the modern technologies and we have followed the situation very, very closely. We have been engaged in conversation with our partners, and I do want to express my sincere condolences to all of those who have lost their loved ones in Serbia but also across the Western Balkans.  We are all in this pandemic together and we can come out of this pandemic only together; and I hope we come out of it stronger by also underlying what unites us. And what unites us is the European perspective, European perspective for Serbia, European perspective for the countries in the region of the Western Balkans. As a standing rapporteur for Serbia, I believe we have a balanced report on Serbia. We welcome progress where progress has been made and we are critical where criticism is due. But most of all, what I’ve tried to push – and we did have difficult negotiations on the report, is a constructive forward looking approach. We cannot dwell on a single case or a single detail. I think we as politicians have the responsibility for pushing a systematic change. A systematic change, not because of us in Europe, only, but because of the people and the countries in the region. This is important, and this is especially important as a message to my and our Serbian partners.  Let me highlight some of the details from the report and some of the key messages. I very much welcome the fact that EU membership continues to be Serbia’s strategic goal and strategic priority, and that it is among the priorities of the newly formed government following the elections in June last year.  However, we need to inject more dynamism into the negotiating process. It’s a welcome sign that the report by the Commission was discussed in the Narodna Skupština. That was a very good point, but of course what’s in the report by the Commission but also in this report – which I hope we adopt successfully in this House today – are the key messages, which we want to discuss in partnership. We are here to support the reforms and the change, which must take place on the ground. It’s important that we remember the basic criteria, the Copenhagen criteria, and the basic criterion is the political criterion. That’s why rule of law reforms are essential. That’s why the inter-party dialogue within Serbia – which I very much welcome and I welcome the fact that we launched its second phase in our conversation with Ivica Dačić earlier this month – is key for making progress on the quality of political competition, on the quality of electoral conditions and on the quality of democracy in Serbia.  I do hope we have a meaningful conversation with all pro-European forces in the coming months in Serbia, and we can help through our facilitation by Members of the European Parliament and other colleagues, to achieve progress in this area. We need more trust, more good faith, more dialogue, less and fewer conflicts and we also need a calmer atmosphere. Attacks against journalists are unacceptable. Attacks against NGOs are unacceptable.  We will have a debate this afternoon in this House about Malta and I do hope that all of us who are so critical about the situation with journalists in Serbia will be equally critical with respect to Malta, or other countries: my own Slovakia, for instance. This is important. We need to hold everybody to the same standards. This is the message which I want to send to our Serbian partners.  I do want to welcome the progress that’s been made in the Pristina in the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue. That’s something which has been a big achievement in terms of the past year. The EU facilitated, EU-led dialogue. It is important it continues and it is important it brings results. We do need a comprehensive legally binding agreement, which will help us reconcile the past and move forward. This is important for the European perspective for Serbia and the European perspective of the region. Reconciliation in general is a point which we must underline. And I also want to underline the fact that in public communication it is important to take action following words. This is in particular important when it comes to foreign policy, in the case of Serbia. Serbia has had the lowest alignment rate with our foreign policy. This must change. The only meaningful European future of Serbia can only take place if Serbia does gradually move ahead in this respect. And I very much hope that we can have much closer ties when it comes to countering the negative influences, also the fight against disinformation with respect to Russia and China.  This is a joint debate, and let me just make a point on Albania very quickly on behalf of my colleague David Lega, who is a shadow rapporteur. We welcome the commitment of Albania to integration and support the convening of the first intergovernmental conference following the complete fulfilment of the conditions set out by the European Council, but the fight against corruption and amendments to the media law are a crucial element.  Let me make one last point on enlargement in general. I think we would deserve a much bigger debate on this issue here. This has been one of the biggest achievements of the European project in the past decades. I think each country would deserve its own debate and I hope we can do this next time we meet and discuss the Western Balkans.