Gioffre is handing over the Annual Report to Vučić today

Gioffre is handing over the Annual Report to Vučić today

Gioffre will hand over to Vučić the Annual Report of the European Commission on Serbia in 2022.

The meeting will be held at 18:00 at the Palace of Serbia.

The EC today presents the Report on the progress of the countries of the Western Balkans

Today in Brussels, the European Commission will present the annual report on the progress of the countries of the Western Balkans in the implementation of reforms and European integration, which includes the annual report of the EC for Serbia.

The report will be presented to the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee by the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi.

In the report of the European Commission for Serbia, which Tanjug had an insight into, it is estimated that Serbia needs to harmonize its foreign policy with the EU, and Belgrade and Pristina call for constructive engagement and improvement of negotiations without further delay.

In the Commission's report, which will be presented today, it is stated that after Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Serbia did not comply with the EU's restrictive measures against Russia, and that Serbia is expected to show commitment as a priority and "progressively align itself with the EU's common foreign and security policy" , including EU restrictive measures, in accordance with the EU-Serbia negotiation framework".

When it comes to the dialogue on the normalization of relations with Pristina, which has continued, the Report assesses that "further concrete progress has not yet been achieved in the negotiations on a comprehensive and legally binding agreement on normalization". The commission calls on "Kosovo and Serbia to engage constructively and advance the negotiations" and "without further delay".

For the Commission, reaching such an agreement is "urgent and crucial so that Kosovo and Serbia can progress on their European paths".

Regarding good neighborly relations and regional cooperation, the report states that Serbia remains committed to improving bilateral relations with other candidate countries, potential candidates and neighboring EU member states and actively participates in regional cooperation.

The Commission notes that relations with Croatia "were strained, with occasional political conflicts", and it says that relations with Montenegro are "challenging", but that both sides indicated a greater willingness to reset relations and work on solving open issues. In the part related to the economy, the Commission states that according to economic criteria, Serbia is "between a good and moderate level of preparedness" and that "it has made some progress in the development of a functional market economy".

It was also estimated that after 2020, "the Serbian economy recovered strongly in 2021, followed by a certain slowdown in the first half of 2022".

The report states that the parliamentary elections on April 3, 2022, resulted in a pluralist parliament, but with the assessment that the political and media scene remained polarized.

The commission observed that offensive language is used against political opponents in Serbia, both in parliament and during the election campaign, and recommends that the code of conduct be used more effectively "in preventing and sanctioning the use of offensive and inappropriate language in parliament."

When it comes to migration, the Commission states that Serbia continued to contribute to the management of mixed migration flows to the EU and that it granted Ukrainian citizens temporary protection for one year, but assesses that Serbia has not taken steps to harmonize the visa policy related to third countries with the EU, especially, as they say, with those third countries that "present a risk of irregular migration or security for the EU".

The report states that order has been made when it comes to the judicial system and points out that "Serbia has taken an important step towards strengthening the independence and responsibility of the judiciary by adopting the relevant amendments to the Constitution in February 2022, together with the constitutional law that determines the steps and deadlines for their application".

According to the Commission's assessment, Serbia is moderately prepared in terms of public administration reform and limited progress has been achieved in this area.

When it comes to the fight against corruption, it is said that "certain progress has been made", and that limited progress was made in the fight against organized crime during the reporting period, adding that the number of new investigations and final verdicts increased in 2021 compared to 2020, but that the number of indictments and first-instance verdicts was reduced.

The Commission assesses that Serbia has a legislative and institutional framework for the preservation of fundamental rights and that a new strategy for the fight against discrimination and inclusion of Roma has been adopted, but notes that "Serbia needs to strengthen institutions for human rights by allocating the necessary financial and human resources".

The report also refers to Europride and states that there were cases of violence, and that the authorities' communication was "contradictory, including the banning of the original route of the march". In this part of the Report, it is also written that the authorities banned the anti-European, anti-Western demonstrations announced during the march and that they maintained contacts with the organizers in order to find a solution, but that there were difficulties.

The report said that there was no progress in terms of freedom of expression. It expressed concern over threats and cases of violence against journalists. It recalled that the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) handed broadcasting licenses to the same four TV stations that received warnings on several occasions for violations of the law.

The Commission believes that the environment for the unhindered exercise of freedom of expression still needs to be further strengthened in practice.