Bruxelles, 21 April 2022
Today, the Committee on Foreign Affairs presented has considered the draft version of its report on the 2021 Commission report on Serbia. With this report, the European Parliament will give its recommendations the needed steps for Serbia to progress on its path of European integration.
Vice-Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Željana Zovko, welcomed the report and stated that she expects Serbia to further align with the European Common Foreign and Security Policy, especially in regard to sanctions against Russia. “We expect from Serbia to finally choose its path and to align with those they aspire to and not to balance between good and evil in this volatile world” Zovko stated and added that Serbia has made progress on its European path but more efforts are needed in chapters related to the judiciary, rule of law, fundamental rights and media freedoms. Zovko also called on Serbia to intensify its work regarding the fate of missing persons, hate speech, condemning the glorification of war criminals, and by supporting domestic prosecutors in bringing perpetrators to justice.
Zovko also stated that, although a representative of the Croatian minority was elected to the Serbian Parliament in the recent elections, the respect of the minority rights of the Croatian community still remains below the European standard. “It is very important that Serbia shows sincere commitment in resolving outstanding issues in regard to the status of the Croatian minority in Serbia, especially in terms of non-discriminatory use of Croatian language in education and dedicated media space as well as respect for Croatian cultural heritage” Zovko stated and added that Serbia is sending a disappointing message by appropriating Croatian cultural heritage and its literary tradition and questioning the status of Croatian language in its educational curricula.