Brnabic: Serbia on European path, EU should have equal standards for all candidates

BUDAPEST - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Friday Serbia was on the European path and that EU membership was its strategic priority, as well as that the country was committed to reforms, especially in rule of law, and noted that the EU should have equal standards for all membership candidate countries.

"It needs to keep its word and be fair, and ensure that what it says will happen if you get some things done actually happens," Brnabic told reporters in Budapest, where she attended the 12th Conference of Speakers of Parliament of Southeast European Countries.

She said that, in an address at the conference, she had given two examples that did not inspire confidence among Serbian citizens in a principled EU attitude towards Serbia.

Brnabic said the first example was a 2013 Brussels agreement on normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations, and noted that the EU had guaranteed full implementation of the document, which she said was the foundation and the backbone of a Community of Serb Municipalities.

"Not only has nothing been going on for 13 years, but all the time, especially since Albin Kurti took charge of the provisional self-government institutions in Pristina, Pristina has been saying, completely openly, that the Brussels Agreement does not exist and that it is irrelevant. The EU remains silent and, 13 years on, we still do not have a Community of Serb Municipalities, for which the EU has provided guarantees," Brnabic said.

That is an example showing that, by failing to meet their expectations, the EU has let Serbia and its citizens down, especially Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, as well as an example where the EU did not respect rule of law, she said.

Brnabic said the second example of the EU's double standards was Cluster 3 in Serbia's accession talks, which was ready for opening in December 2021.

"Serbia met all the conditions for opening that famed Cluster 3 on the economy and competitiveness as early as in 2021. We were due to open Cluster 3 in December 2021, I was PM at the time. When December 2021 came, they said: 'You will open it in June or July 2022 at the latest.' March 2026 is approaching, and Cluster 3 has still not been opened, and we still face new conditions," she said.

The failure to open Cluster 3 with Serbia in spite of five consecutive European Commission reports that state that Serbia has met all conditions reflects the double standards that everyone is noticing, Brnabic said.

She added that she had good meetings in Budapest with Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Kover, as well as with the first deputy parliament speaker of Poland and the parliament speakers of Czechia and Slovakia.