National Convent says Serbia moving backwards on road to EU

NEWS 05.10.202014:57
Fonet

The National Convent on the European Union (NKEU) warned on Monday that Serbia has taken steps back on its path to the EU over the past year.

A presentation of the Convent’s recommendations for 2019 was told that no progress has been recorded and that in some cases there has been backward movement such as in rule of law, the fight against organized crime and corruption, freedom of speech and the media as well as in political criteria.  

NKEU coordinator Maja Stojanovic told the presentation that the situation was especially hard for local media during the state of emergency declared at the start of the pandemic, adding that those media were prevented from getting information from local hospitals. She said that greater pressure on the media was reported at that time, including the arrests of journalists all of which made the human rights and liberties situation even worse than it was.  

Political criteria group coordinator Srdjan Majstorovic recalled that there were warnings from a number of organizations that Serbia had fallen to the level of hybrid regime. He said that the NKEU called for an end to threats and the intimidation of the public and political rivals, equal access to the media during election campaigns and changes to election laws. Majstorovic said that it isn’t clear whether Serbia has formally applied to conduct pre-accession talks with the EU under its new mechanism.