PrEUgovor Coalition: Reforms in Rule of Law on Hold for Six Months

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Serbia is still far from accomplishing visible results in the rule of law, which is "temporarily pushed aside" due to the geopolitical situation caused by the war in Ukraine and tense relations between Belgrade and Pristina, the PrEUgovor Coalition assessed in its latest Alarm Report.

The editor of Alarm Report, Jelena Pejic Nikic of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, stated on Nov. 24 that, in the reporting period from May to October 2022, Serbia's European integration was "in hibernation." She said that one of the reasons was that Serbia's government was in a technical mandate, which limited the carrying out of reforms, especially in the context of proposing and adopting new regulations.

"We now see an indecisive Serbia, dragging its feet at the moment when focus on the region is increased, when the enlargement policy is being revived due to geopolitical turmoil. However, Serbia was unable to 'ride' that wave. Instead, its action were such that, from the European perspective, it brought Serbia's commitment to becoming an EU member into question," Pejic Nikic said at the presentation of the latest alarm Report.

Pejic Nikic said that everything that was happening on the geopolitical plane had drawn attention away from the rule of law, fundamental rights and issues of security – the key fields in which Serbia is "performing poorly." She stressed that problems still existed in the implementation of regulations and that avoiding them was the most prominent in the fields of professionalization of governance and in public procurement, while a series of incidents in the fields of rights of women, children and gender equality were evidence of systemic flaws.