The President of the European Council, António Costa, warned Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić that “the door of the European Union remains open” to Serbia, but “time is running out” and “the window of opportunity for decisive action is now open”.
“Enlargement is more than ever not just a possibility, but a geostrategic necessity for Europe”, said António Costa at a joint press conference in Belgrade with Aleksandar Vučić, during his tour of the region ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Montenegro on Friday 5 June.
As he had already done yesterday in Pristina, Mr Costa insisted that dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and the full implementation of the Ohrid agreement “are essential”. He also said that Serbia needed to align itself more closely with the policies and values of the European Union, in particular the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and “speed up” reforms in the field of the Rule of law.
In this context, he stressed the need to fully implement “the recommendations of the Venice Commission on the laws governing the judiciary and the public prosecutor’s office”, to “create a favourable environment for the media and to set up a new EMN Council in a transparent and inclusive manner”, and to reform the electoral framework “in accordance with the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR before the next elections in Serbia”. In this regard, he welcomed as “a very important step” the recent adoption of four electoral laws and encouraged Serbia to “implement the remaining recommendations, in particular those relating to the prevention of abusive use of State resources and pressure on voters”. António Costa rejected the idea that the European Union was “blackmailing” Serbia, while stressing that the EU was ready to “do more” to support reforms in the country, but that “the pace of progress depends above all on Serbia’s own determination”.
After Aleksandar Vučić confirmed that he would attend the Summit in Montenegro, despite the security risks, António Costa said that he was fully convinced of the Montenegrin authorities’ ability to guarantee the safety of all the leaders during the Summit.
In Pristina on 3 June, António Costa sent out a clear message ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for this Sunday in Kosovo. “Kosovo needs strong, stable, and functional institutions capable of implementing reforms and seizing the opportunities offered by the European Union”, he said, encouraging “all political actors to make European integration a priority above and beyond partisan divisions, and to work together towards this common goal”. (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)