Ambassador speaks of Serbia’s EU hopes at London School of Economics – by Tijana Delic
On the evening of Thursday, 30th January HE Dr. Ognjen Pribićević, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to the UK, gave a guest lecture at the London School of Economics – “Serbia Along the European Path”. The audience consisted primarily of academics and people with a professional interest in the subject, including David Clark, former special advisor to Robin Cook on South Eastern Europe in the region (1997-2001 at the Foreign Office).
Earlier in January, Serbia formally began her journey towards full accession to the European Union and HE Dr. Pribićević spoke on the challenges that Serbia faces in this journey, which should hopefully come to a successful conclusion with Serbia joining the EU in 2020.
The Ambassador opened his lecture with an interesting note on the timing of Serbia’s accession journey. Serbia is an accession candidate at a time when there is a lot of debate about the future of the EU, its existence and whether it needs reforms and if so what kind. The questions are being widely debated within existing Member States and here in the UK there is much discussion about whether we belong in the EU at all. Whilst the UK is debating on having a referendum to decide if it will stay in or leave, Serbia is working hard to join its neighbours and become a part of the EU family.
HE Dr. Pribićević explained that Serbia’s path towards membership is one filled with numerous tasks to accomplish. Serbia will have to close 35 Chapters and all 28 Members will then need to agree to her accession. Once, a country wishing to join the European Community had to close 9 chapters, but today countries need to close 35 for accession, not an easy or speedy process to go through.
The Ambassador identified two key areas upon which Serbia’s accession will be contingent. Firstly and perhaps most importantly will be Economic Reform (in conjunction with police and justice reforms). Labour laws are just one area he highlighted as an example of regulations that need amendment. Secondly, Serbia’s implementation of the Brussels Agreement (2013) on the normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina will be crucial to her entry to the EU.
Serbia has made huge progress with respect to the Brussels Agreement and, whilst no one has any doubt that there is still much work to be done on both sides, she has been and is taking all the right steps. One of the first steps was holding the first elections in the north of Kosovo-Metohija just over a month ago, where the Serbian population was able to elect local Members of Parliament and local Mayors. The first steps in creating an assembly of Serbian people with representation in the police and justice systems as well as an economic policy have also been a very significant achievement. There has been a lot of deliberation in Brussels, Belgrade and Priština, but Serbia is hopeful that the Brussels Agreement implementation process will fasten in the coming days and will provide a better quality of life for all those who live in the entire region.
HE Dr. Pribićević then moved on to an interesting discussion of Serbia’s economic status. We learnt that 60% of Serbia’s trade is to the EU and if we were to include states on the verge of joining or in the accession process already then that number goes up to around 80-85%. This is just one of the many reasons why Serbia feels such a strong part of the European family already. Since 2000, Serbia has received 4.5 billion Euros in donations from the EU, with over one billion coming from Germany alone. Germany, Italy, Austria, Norway and Russia are the main investors in the Serbian economy. The Fiat factory brings Serbia in revenues over a billion Euros and I was pleased to hear that foreign investment in Serbia is reaping these sorts of rewards.
HE Dr Pribićević reminded us of recent polls, which showed that there is much overall support in Serbia for the country’s accession to the EU. The latest polls showed that 52% were in favour of membership, only 22% against and 20% were still undecided. He told us that the current parliament is about 92% in favour of joining. Currently there are over 30 parties in the parliament, of which only one party is against EU membership. Even with the upcoming elections it would be safe to assume that this pro-membership stance will not be likely to change.
Serbia also feels deeply connected culturally with the EU. Many Serbian writers have spent time living and writing in European countries as well as in their mother country. One example the Ambassador gave was Dositej Obradović who spent time in England. He reminded the audience that Belgrade is very similar to other central European cities, like Vienna, in terms of culture, food, architecture, and so forth. As an art historian, I see the European influence all over Serbia when it comes to architecture, from very old (medieval) churches to modern European styles.
So what can Serbia bring to the EU? The Ambassador believes a lot. For example, she can bring the unique culture of the Western Balkans, a culture that has been a crucial part of Europe for a thousand years – a rich mix of past and present, of East and West. Also, Serbia has two major festivals: Exit and Guča. The Exit festival is a huge international rock festival taking place annually in Novi Sad and bringing visitors from all over the world to Serbia. Guča, on the other hand, celebrates more traditional forms of music and in 2008 over half a million people attended (compared to the 120,000 visitors Glastonbury had this year, according to statistics from Metro).
Following this lecture the floor was opened up for questions and a variety of interesting questions were asked, to which the Ambassador provided full and detailed responses. Throughout his lecture, it was visible that this is a man who knows his subject well. He clearly laid out for us Serbia’s hopes and ambitions for her future as an EU Member State without underestimating the tasks and challenges she faces in the coming months and years. He left me – and, I am sure, the rest of the audience too – confident that Serbia is more than up to meet those challenges and take her rightful place in the European Union family. Our new Ambassador has only been in the UK for approximately three months, but his lecture leaves me in no doubt that Serbia could not have chosen a better representative to send to the UK.
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