Brnabic: Very good meetings in Stockholm about rule of law, Serbia's EU integration

STOCKHOLM - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Monday she had had very good, open and sincere meetings about rule of law and Serbia's EU integration with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons Sampietro, officials of the Baltic states and German Bundestag President Julia Klockner at the 4th Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform in Stockholm.

Speaking to reporters after the meetings, Brnabic said the discussion with Sampietro had addressed rule of law reforms and continued cooperation, noting that Serbia was working very intensively with OSCE on the reforms.

She said she hoped Sampietro would visit Serbia soon.

Brnabic said Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were more skeptical about supporting Serbia in EU integration but that the meetings with the representatives of the Baltic states had been good, addressing the importance of EU integration and of sending a positive EU signal to Serbia after four years.

"There are many outstanding issues, mostly because we have traditionally not have had sufficient or even almost any cooperation with the Baltic states, and that will change with the opening of our embassy in Latvia, in Riga," Brnabic noted, adding that the embassy would cover all the Baltic states and that it was always good to talk.

"It is even more important to talk with those who perhaps have some understanding of the direction our country is heading in," Brnabic added.

She also said the meeting with Klockner had been a very good discussion about Serbia's EU integration, reforms and EU path.

"All in all, quite a few good meetings and, I hope, a job well done for Serbia," Brnabic said.

Asked to comment on frequent references to respect for international law and the UN Charter - which Serbia, too, makes when it comes to its Kosovo-Metohija province - Brnabic said that, at any time, Serbia would agree to some of the things that had been said at the summit and that everything she had heard reminded her even more of the injustice done to Serbia regarding Kosovo-Metohija.

"When you hear all that, you ask yourself: Where the respect for the territorial integrity of Serbia?" she said.

"Why does that not apply to us and how come that, in our case, the UN Charter and international law are not the most important?" Brnabic said.