Picula: EP Supports Message about Serbia’s Autocratic Regime by Adopting Report

Tonino Picula (BETAPHOTO/European Parliament/Michel CHRISTEN)

The European Parliament’s (EP) rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, assessed on May 7 that, by adopting his report and resolution on Serbia, the EP had supported the clear and strong message about the autocratic character of the authorities in Serbia and about the courageous resistance to the regime.

“I thank my MEP colleagues and assistants for the excellent cooperation and support,” Picula wrote in a post on X after the vote in the European Parliament. The EP adopted the report and resolution on Serbia at the session in Strasbourg on May 7, with 419 MEPs in favor, 113 against and 88 abstaining.

At the start of the debate on May 6, Picula stated that political reality in Serbia had been extremely complex for a while now, especially in the last six month. “The collapse of the concrete overhang in Novi Sad, when 16 people died, has become a tragic symbol of systemic corruption, nepotism and inadequate control mechanisms, which should be protecting the citizens. We are now discussing the situation in a country where election legislation has serious flaws, where the media are mostly not free or available to everyone, where the regulatory body for the media does not function, the judiciary is selective and whistleblowers are exposed to public attacks,” Picula stated.

He added that personal data of those who protest were being made public and that unidentified illegal devices were being used against them, which was then investigated by Russian services. EU citizens are being summoned and expelled from the country over posts on social networks and the EU and its representatives are being accused of staging so-called color revolutions, Picula stated at the start of the parliamentary debate in Strasbourg.