Ambassador: Reforms Need To Continue, Relations Normalized with Kosovo for Faster European Integrations

Italian Ambassador Luca Gori (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Italian Ambassador to Belgrade Luca Gori said on March 1 that it was necessary to speed up the process of Serbia's integration with Europe and that this could be achieved by stepping up reforms, the normalization of relations with Kosovo, constructive cooperation with Croatia and alignment with the EU's foreign policy.

"From the Italian perspective, it is important to speed up the process of enlargement, especially with regard to the geopolitical situation that we have in Europe today," Gori said at a political gathering at the University Rectorate in Belgrade. Gori said that despite steps last year in terms of North Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina the EU enlargement process in the Western Balkans remained slow. Serbia, he said, needs to work on several areas to expedite the process.

The first is stepping up reforms, Gori said and added that significant progress had been made in reforming the justice system, but that there was a long road ahead of Serbia. The second is normalizing relations with Kosovo and applying previous agreements. He added that, to speed up its integration with Europe, Serbia needed to have a constructive relationship with Croatia and align its foreign policy with the EU's with regard to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Italian ambassador named three possible scenarios for the future enlargement process. The first is leaving things as is and taking small steps in a very long process, while in the second there would be a geopolitical increase in speed due to the situation in Ukraine, which, he said, the Western Balkans should not be excluded from. The third scenario, he said, would be an attempt to "mend" the enlargement process and with, regard to that, ideas coming from civil society would need to be reviewed, such as accession according to stages or inclusion in the unified European market.