Joksimovic: EC Report Call to Step up Reforms because They Are Counting on Serbia

Jadranka Joksimovic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

Serbian Minister of EU Integration Jadranka Joksimovic said on Oct. 9 that a recent European Commission report was a strong call to Serbia to step up its reform processes, especially in particular areas, because they were counting on our country.

She told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation that the European Union understood that Serbia was potentially the engine of a part of South East Europe and the West Balkans, and was part of a revitalized European concept, and the EU itself in the future.

"That is why it urges us, not because we are threatened by suspension, as I've been hearing these days, but because of the realization that things can go faster. We ourselves say some things should go faster," the minister said.

Joksimovic said Serbia had faced special challenges in the recent past, and that all countries in Europe and the world had "reordered their priorities" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of all for the sake of economic recovery, but that is no justification, she noted.

She said the EC report was also significant because it stated that Serbia had shown a high degree of resilience thanks to its vital economy, which has kept its vigor in these difficult time for that entire world.