Minister of European Integration Jadranka Joksimović visited the Ministry of European Integration stand today at the 62nd International Belgrade Book Fair, where she presented two recent publications of the Ministry - “Arguments for Europe” and “Myths about the European Union”.
“For the first time at the Book Fair, we presented our publications as promotional materials, which are free of charge and which should demonstrate in an acceptable manner the arguments in favour of European integration to our citizens and explain some misconceptions and myths that have bothered not only us, but also those who had been involved in the process of European integration before us,” stated Joksimović.
She expressed her appreciation to the representatives of the embassies of EU member states that attended the event, including the ambassadors of Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as the representatives of the embassies of Hungary, France, Poland, Romania, Spain and the Delegation of the European Union.
“Their presence shows that we are working together and trying to bring closer to our people the reasons why Serbia is unequivocally oriented towards continuing its European path,” emphasised Joksimović.
Noting that citizens frequently inquire about their benefits from the EU integration process, she said that that was precisely the reason why the ministry had published the two most recent publications - “Arguments for Europe” and “Myths about the European Union”.
She explained that the first publication consisted of three segments - the political and institutional segment, the economic segment, in terms of economic benefits and benefits for our citizens, and the segment concerning the use of European Union funds.
“In the summary section, we have indicated the specific benefits from Serbia's membership in the EU according to all 35 chapters that directly relate to the citizens of Serbia,” said Joksimović.
Speaking about the publication “Myths about the European Union”, she cited “Myth 3” as an example, which suggests that Cyrillic script shall not exist if Serbia becomes a member of the EU. “Not only is this not true, but the Cyrillic shall even become one of the official scripts of the European Union and the Serbian language shall become one of the official languages of the European Union,” Joksimović highlighted.
She also spoke about “Myth 13: Good-bye to crooked cucumbers and lumpy carrots.”
“It is a famous story about the standardisation of everything, even of agricultural products, which, of course, is far from true,” Joksimović has said, noting that Serbia's EU membership, among other things, guarantees agricultural producers the preservation of traditional production methods, as well as the access to large EU funds for agricultural production.
Source: Tanjug
