Brnabic: Important meeting with Koopman about current rule of law reforms

BRUSSELS - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic met with the European Commission’s Director General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood, Gert Jan Koopman, in Brussels on Wednesday.

In a statement to reporters after the meeting, Brnabic said the discussion with Koopman had been very important, especially in the wake of a European Parliament resolution, to demonstrate once again that Serbia was on the EU path.

"It seems to me that the European Commission truly believes in Serbia's capacities and potential to carry out reforms on that path," Brnabic said.

She added that she had discussed with Koopman the current reforms and everything that was being done in the field of rule of law.

"First of all, amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll, in order to implement all the provisions of the recommendations, or this first step as it is the most complex and, I would say, the most difficult recommendation. Meanwhile, we have somehow reached an agreement, or found a common solution, for the Bill on the Unified Electoral Roll with CRTA and CeSID as the two most relevant non-governmental organisations dealing with these issues," Brnabic said.

She said she had informed Koopman that, as parliament speaker, she had called a meeting for Friday noon, inviting all parliamentary groups to a discussion on amendments to the law.

She added that she hoped an agreement would be reached and that the parliament would proceed to the procedure of adopting the amendments.

She said the election of a new council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) was another important topic.

"It is another important reform we have been working on for over a year, I think that is also slowly coming to an end. So, hopefully, within the next two or three weeks we will have quite good news when it comes to rule of law reforms," Brnabic said.