PROGRESS REPORT ON SERBIA’S NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE EU
Submitted by christian on Sun, 08/02/2015 - 10:46
- Continued efforts are needed to ensure an effective, independent judiciary. Key pieces of legislation remain to be adopted, such as the law on free legal aid, the law on whistle-blowers, and the law on conflicts of interest. Corruption remains prevalent in many areas. Serbia needs to build up a track record of concrete results in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
- Fundamental rights need to be fully respected in practice, including protection of the most vulnerable groups. There are concerns about deteriorating conditions for the full exercise of freedom of expression. Weaknesses in public administration need to be addressed. Findings of independent regulatory bodies need to be better followed up. Economic reforms are also essential to generate growth and tackle high unemployment.
- Serbia faces many challenges ahead. Serbia needs to foster proactively the inclusiveness and transparency of the accession process. To support the reform process, Serbia should improve planning, coordination and monitoring of implementation of new legislation and policies. In line with the new approach to rule of law issues, opening benchmarks have been set under chapters 23 and 24. These require Serbia to present comprehensive action plans. In order to ensure an overall balance in negotiations, progress under these chapters will need to be made in parallel with progress in negotiations overall.
- Serbia needs to maintain its commitment to regional cooperation and an active and constructive engagement in the normalisation process with Kosovo, which has seen significant progress. Serbia should continue to ensure the implementation of the agreements reached in the dialogue. As is the case for rule of law chapters, the negotiating framework requires progress in the process of normalising relations with Kosovo under chapter 35 to be made in parallel with progress in negotiations overall. Chapter 35 should be opened early in the negotiations. This will provide a solid framework for monitoring implementation of agreements reached.
- Attention should be paid to continuing improving inclusiveness and transparency of the reform process. Urgent parliamentary procedure should be limited to cases where it is strictly necessary. The role of independent regulatory bodies should be continuously acknowledged and their recommendations followed up. A sound and comprehensive reform, underpinned by proper analysis and performance management tools, is however still needed.
- Key pieces of legislation remain to be adopted, such as the law on free legal aid. Progress is needed to ensure an effective independent judiciary. The recruitment and appointment of magistrates remain governed by unclear criteria. The generalisation of the adversarial system and modification of the court networks have not yet had a noticeable impact on the efficiency and quality of the judiciary.
- Corruption remains prevalent in many areas and remains a serious problem. The ratio of convictions to indictments is low. Whistle-blowing protection mechanisms have yet to be established. Effective prevention and repression mechanisms remain to be built. The Anti-Corruption Agency and Council’s role need to be supported at the highest level and their recommendations and proposals properly followed up. Effective alternatives to the excessive recourse to incriminations under the offence of abuse of position in the private sector need to be found.
- A strategic threat assessment on organised crime is needed, with a view to develop strategic planning and analysis and subsequently appropriate law enforcement responses, including through the concept of intelligence-led policing. Credible track records of investigations, prosecutions and final convictions need to be developed in corruption and organised crime cases, including high-level ones.
- The adoption of credible and comprehensive action plans for chapters 23 and 24, in line with the new approach, will be a crucial milestone for Serbia.
- The legal framework for the protection of minorities is broadly in place but its consistent implementation across the country needs to be ensured, notably in the areas of education, use of languages, and access to the media and to religious services in minority languages. The positive measures taken to improve the situation of the Roma need to be stepped up, particularly when it comes to education, housing and employment. Further sustained efforts are needed to improve the situation of refugees and displaced persons.
- There are concerns about deteriorating conditions for the full exercise of freedom of expression. The authorities hold a crucial responsibility in actively contributing to the unimpeded exercise of freedom of expression, including by showing appropriate support to independent bodies, human rights defenders and independent journalists. The promotion of all fundamental rights and the implementation of the anti-discrimination strategy will require an even more dedicated and proactive approach.
- Progress in the dialogue implementation with Kosovo has generally slowed down. It is important that the high-level dialogue resumes. It is also essential that both sides continue to engage fully in the implementation in good faith of all existing agreements. Further progress should gradually lead to the comprehensive normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, in the form of a legally binding agreement by the end of Serbia’s accession negotiations, with the prospect of both Serbia and Kosovo being able to fully exercise their rights and fulfil their responsibilities.
- As regards the economic criteria, Serbia has made limited progress towards establishing a functioning market economy. A wide range of structural reforms needs to be implemented so as to cope in the medium-term with the competitive pressures and market forces within the Union.
- Despite a series of new measures, fiscal imbalances remain very high and government debt continues to increase. Unemployment remains very high.
- Significant efforts to reduce government expenditure and implement the adopted structural reforms are required, in order to restore fiscal sustainability and ultimately support growth. Reducing the heavy state influence in the economy requires tackling inefficiencies in the large public sector, advancing privatisation in line with the schedule, streamlining state aid, and improving corporate governance of public companies. Tax collection needs to be improved, also by tackling the large informal sector. The business environment suffers from excessive red tape, slow market entry and exit, many obstacles to investment, such as the weak legal system and slow contract enforcement. The high share of non-performing loans needs to be effectively addressed to improve bank lending. Upgrading the physical infrastructure, requires persistent efforts and creation of additional fiscal space. The education system needs to be made more efficient in view of falling numbers of pupils and the skills mismatch in the labour market.
- In the field of foreign and security policy, Serbia’s alignment with EU declarations and Council decisions should be improved so that Serbia fulfils the requirement under the negotiating framework to progressively align its policies and decisions in this area with the ones adopted by the European Union and its Member States in the period up to accession.
- Serbia needs to urgently elaborate and implement reliable and robust monitoring and supervision mechanisms for acquis alignment across the board. Significant efforts are also needed not only to enhance and fully enforce the overall legal framework but also, and most importantly, to back these reforms with appropriate financial and human resources. There is also a lack of institutional coordination and leadership in some key acquis areas and the need to safeguard the independence of regulatory bodies. The legislation on state aid control must be aligned with the acquis and effectively applied to all undertakings, including those in the process of restructuring and privatisation. Further efforts are needed to streamline the asylum procedure in line with EU standards and permanent accommodation facilities need to be urgently upgraded. Serbia needs to step up its efforts towards alignment in the field of energy, including when it comes to the South Stream gas pipeline. It needs to achieve unbundling in the gas sector and the restructuring of the public gas company Srbijagas as a matter of priority. Further alignment in the areas of taxation, environment, climate change, genetically modified organisms is also needed, together with substantial strengthening of the overall health and social protection system.
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