EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE IN BELGRADE: Serbia is a captured state that is regressing on the path toward the EU!

Members of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs mostly spoke critically today about the situation in Serbia, calling it a captured state and assessing that it has regressed on the path toward the European Union.

Member of the European People’s Party (EPP) Davor Ivo Stier said that in the past year, Serbia has not moved closer to the EU, but has actually regressed. Stating that neighbors consider Serbia a security threat, Stier said that regarding foreign affairs, Serbia continues to cooperate with both the EU and with Russia, China, and America, but is expanding military cooperation with Russia and China.

Stier said that dependence on Russia will not be reduced if Serbia creates a connection with the Druzhba oil pipeline via Hungary.

According to him, Serbia is a polarized society for which EU membership is a secondary issue. The government continues to state a desire for membership, but this is not seen in reforms, Stier added.

As he said, during the AFET delegation’s visit to Serbia, he was informed of increased attempts to capture institutions and that recently amended judicial laws are a step in that direction.

Stier said that the opposition is divided, including on the issue of EU membership, that students are organizing large protests but without the European flag, and it has been confirmed that they are ideologically divided.

FIDESZ MEP: The report is not a critique, but a political condemnation

FIDESZ MEP Anamarija Viček pointed out that she didn’t even have to read the report to know what was written in it, because there are no encouraging words in it, and emphasized that the report is not a critique, but a political condemnation.

She said that the report records only negative things and does not give space to positive steps, among which she listed electoral legislation and judicial legislation.

Anamarija Viček said that the judicial laws were voluntarily submitted to the Venice Commission for an urgent opinion, which shows the will to harmonize with the European system.

She said that the EU refuses to open Cluster 3 in negotiations with Serbia and that this is not a process of enlargement, but geopolitical selectivity.

“Serbia is ready, the EU must react. It is not a question of whether Serbia is ready and committed, but whether the EU is ready for Serbia and whether it is ready for integration based on merit,” she said.

MEP Șerban-Dimitrie Sturdza from the ranks of the European Conservatives said that the question is what weight the EU carries in the Western Balkans, pointing out that gaps must not be allowed on the European continent, because if the EU does not seize the moment, others will, which is why the Western Balkans must be part of the EU project as soon as possible.

“Serbia will either head toward the EU or become a point of weakness for the EU as a sphere of influence for other powers,” Sturdza said.

Brandstätter: Judicial laws mean less justice for people in Serbia

MEP of the Renew Europe group Helmut Brandstätter stated that the judicial laws mean less justice for the people in Serbia.

“The government does not want to enter the EU, but it wants money from the EU,” Brandstätter said.

Stating that freedom of speech is endangered, he pointed out that pro-government media target journalists from free media and assessed that it would be good to organize a visit to Serbia that will concern only the media.

The representative of the Greens, Thomas Waitz, read messages from his colleague Vladimir Prebilič, who pointed out that what they saw in Serbia is not democracy and that it is a “captured state.”

Prebilič said that Serbia should be told that there is no more money from the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans until basic democratic things are established.

MEP: What is happening in Serbia is anything but a European path

EPP MEP Željana Zovko said that what is happening in Serbia is everything but a European path.

European Conservatives MEP Geadis Geadi said that Serbia should be viewed as a strategic necessity for the EU, and that Serbia’s European perspective is a pledge for peace and that the EU should treat everyone in an equal manner.

The representative of the Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission, Jiří Plecitý, said that the Commission agrees with the general assessment of the report and said that they want a democratic Serbia to become part of the EU, but that Serbia must stick to its obligations and must solve the problem with the rule of law.

European Parliament Rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula concluded that the common impression is that Serbia’s path toward the EU is seriously threatened, because the government is ignoring all key aspects of the accession negotiations important for progress.