Strasbourg, 30/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament on 29 September adopted a resolution on the defence of multi-ethnicity in Vojvodina, in which it condemns the “harassment and physical assault of non-ethnic Serbs and threats against ethnic Hungarian political leaders”. The authorities in Serbia and Montenegro should “acknowledge these violent acts as criminal acts”, says the Parliament, which also demands regular consultations with the Commission and Council to monitor the situation on the ground, taking particular account of the principles in the EU/Serbia and Montenegro stabilisation and association agreement (during the debate, the Hungarian ALDE MEP Istvan Szent Ivanyi said that, if necessary, there was a need to consider suspending the negotiation process for the stabilisation agreement). The Parliament also invites Serbia and Montenegro to reinstate the autonomy Vojvodina enjoyed until 1990, as well as the “real powers of the regional parliament of Vojvodina in the field of education and the media”, and calls on the EU to closely monitor developments there, in particular by sending observers there as part of the Union's monitoring mission.
During the debate the German Christian-democrat Doris Pack, the president of the EP delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, emphasised: “Vojvodina was a model for the region of cohabitation between different nations”, and the European Union must do what is necessary to re-establish that situation. Several MEPs, particularly Hungarians, among them Zsolt Becsey (EPP-ED), spoke to the same point.
European Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs (himself Hungarian) welcomed the European Parliament's intention to hold a hearing on 13 October on this issue, while still stressing the complexity of the situation on the ground. Like several of those who had spoken before him, he acknowledged that the authorities in Serbia and Montenegro had condemned these serious incidents, but had often been “negligent” in their enquiries. At the same time, he said that these incidents were not the result of a deliberate policy, but rather of tensions between displaced peoples suffering the consequences of recent wars in the Balkans.