SAPC: No Progress in Serbia’s EU Integration Since 2021

Preparations for a rally in front of the Assembly of Serbia (BETAPHOTO/MILAN TIMOTIC)

The co-chair of the EU-Serbia Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee (SAPC), Alessandra Moretti, stated in Belgrade on June 21 that there had been no progress in Serbia’s European integration since 2021.

At the end of the two-day 15th SAPC meeting, she stated that freedom of expression, media freedom, independent judiciary and the fight against corruption had to be on the agenda and this, in her words, not just in legal texts, but also in practice and in real life.

Speaking at a joint news conference with the other co-chair of SAPC, Marinika Tepic, she said that Serbia, regarding the sanctions against Russia over its aggression on Ukraine, had not joined the EU sanctions. “We have many doubts in the sense of Serbia’s harmonization with the common foreign and security policy of the EU and the sanctions against Russia; Serbia is the only country in the Balkans that has not started to harmonize with the sanctions on Russia,” Moretti stated.

In her words, one can understand the historical framework and background, the skepticism and unwillingness of official Belgrade to take the path of imposing of sanctions. “Serbia has itself suffered under sanctions, but the time has come to show courage and to be on the right side of history, which is the EU’s side, on the side of Ukraine and free and democratic countries… that is a tough, but a courageous and morally right decision,” she said.