Expert: Certain Statements and Moves Call into Question Serbia’s Commitment to EU

Jelena Pejic Nikic MEDIA CENTAR BEOGRAD

According to Jelena Pejic Nikic, a Belgrade Center for Security Policy researcher, Serbia, as a country negotiating its EU membership, should not be implementing reforms just for the sake of form, nor should it have relapses in key areas or make moves that call into questions the country’s commitment to its EU future.

In an interview for Euraktiv and BETA on Jan. 7, Pejic Nikic said that she expects of the Serbian authorities in 2021 to act on Brussels’ notices and set into motion and speed up certain processes. She, however, is not optimistic that these actions will be carried out with heart and intention.

The researcher also said she does not expect any substantial changes, explaining that the problem does not lie within the laws, but the system and willingness, adding that “sometimes the desire not to change the laws, and even to make them worse under the guise of pro-EU reforms, is even palpable.”

Nikic Pejic described the previous year as one the worst when it comes to Serbia’s EU integrations, which is formally reflected in the fact that not a single new chapter had been opened, and informally “in this perennial mimicry of reforms, the degradation of democratic standards and the rule of law, the disappearance of the separation of powers and the ever-growing polarization of the society in which dialogue is persistently being rendered meaningless.”