STRASBOURG – The European Parliament held a plenary debate this evening on the situation in Serbia after the December elections. Most speakers criticized the elections, highlighting numerous irregularities noted, and called for an independent investigation by the competent authorities.
Parliament will adopt a resolution based on the debate today, February 8.
European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders opened the debate by citing the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary statement, according to which the elections, considered technically well organized, were dominated by the decisive involvement of the president, which, combined with the systemic advantages of the ruling party, created unjust conditions. .
“We hope that all credible reports of irregularities will be transparently followed up by the relevant national authorities, including during local elections in Belgrade and other municipalities,” Reynders said.
He recalled that Serbia remains a candidate country for the EU.
“We expect Serbia to demonstrate an unequivocal desire to advance the accession process by accelerating its reforms and achieving real and tangible results. This includes in particular the area of rule of law and the normalization of relations with Kosovo,” Reynders said.
In his speech, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimír Bilčík (EPP), cited the conclusions of the European Parliament’s observer mission, published on December 18.
“Frequent early elections raise citizens’ distrust in governance and hinder EU-related reforms. The low level of political debate, the pressure on voters, the emphasis on personal discrediting of opponents, the harsh rhetoric – all this remains very worrying,” Bilčík quoted.
He added that on election day, key voting and counting procedures were respected, but European Parliament observers received numerous reports on the registration of voters from abroad and from other municipalities in Serbia, notably to broaden the electorate.
Bilčík called on the relevant authorities to follow up on these issues.
“Serbia deserves better. Serbs deserve a political climate without constant campaigning. Serbs deserve real European reforms. Serbs deserve to have a clear choice between Russia and Europe and between confrontation and cooperation. I wish Serbia less focus on the tragic past and more energy towards a better future,” he said.
Andreas Schieder (S&D), who led the European Parliament’s observation mission, said there is a long list of irregularities that took place in these elections, ghost voters, problems with the media and things that need to be clarified.
“The government must act. But President Vučić and Prime Minister Brnabić did not act that way, they criticized the election observers. This is very problematic and I think the criticisms made in the report are justified,” Schieder said.
Klemen Grošelj (Renew) said Serbia had serious difficulties establishing basic democratic standards and holding free and fair elections.
“What is new is the brutality with which these irregularities took place. It seemed that the Serbian authorities did not even care or fear that anything could happen. Unfortunately, they are right. The statements from the Council and the Commission have been, to say the least, mild. This is the problem with the enlargement process as a whole,” Grošelj said.
Viola von Cramon (Greens/EFA) said that since becoming an election observer 20 years ago, she has never seen anything like the December elections in Serbia.
“Let’s be clear, these elections were rigged, they were stolen. The united opposition could have won in Belgrade if thousands of people had not been registered or pushed to vote for the ruling party,” von Cramon said.
She demanded an impartial international investigation and proposed using inter-party dialogue as a mediation tool between the ruling parties and the opposition.
Andor Deli, a member of the Hungarian Fidesz delegation, gave a different assessment of the situation.
“It is very regrettable that here in the European Parliament the same recipe is being used against Serbia as in Hungary since 2010. The left-liberal opposition is trying to turn domestic political failures into successes, but with external help. This tactic failed in the case of Hungary, it will not work in Serbia either,” Deli said.
He added that in recent years, the image and credibility of the EU have declined in all Western Balkan countries, not only because of the EU’s hesitations, but also because of these critical and biased opinions.
