Minister of European Integration Tanja Miščević and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain José Manuel Albares signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two ministries in Belgrade today.
After the signing of the Memorandum in the Government of Serbia, Miščević stated that it was the first of its kind that Spain had signed with any country of the Western Balkans in preparation for the EU presidency.
She pointed out that the reason for that were excellent bilateral relations between the two countries, very good understanding between the leadership of the two countries, but also understanding of the importance of Serbia, as a country that was negotiating membership and was ready to go above and beyond that.
As Miščević said, Serbia was a country that was working on progress in the area of the rule of law, trying to improve judicial reform, implement its media strategies and strategies for the protection of human and minority rights, as well as to fight corruption.
“For all these reasons, Serbia became the first country with which the Kingdom of Spain signed such a Memorandum of Cooperation. The goal is permanent support for the European integration process of the Western Balkans and for us, in our European integration process and the reform of Serbia”, said the Minister.
She recalled that in November, Serbia had concluded an agreement by which Spain provided assistance to local governments in the development of projects, and this, as she said, was the most concrete assistance for the European integration process.
“I informed Albares about what we are doing in the domain of all our reform processes and presented Serbia’s views on the acceleration of Serbia’s and Western Balkans’ integration process. We agreed to meet in Madrid for a further exchange of knowledge and ideas”, Miščević said.
Minister Albares expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome in Belgrade and said that the Memorandum of Cooperation was a confirmation that Spain wanted to continue and intensify cooperation with Serbia.
“This meeting, like the one I had with Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, is the beginning of a Western Balkans tour that will include Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania”, said the Spanish Minister.
“The aim of the meetings and the tour is to convey the message of Spain’s increased and renewed interest in the accession of this region to the EU and our readiness to help it. This will be particularly visible during Spain’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, which begins on 1 July. We want to strengthen our presence in the cultural, economic, trade and political sense, and that is the strong message that we want to convey to your political leaders”, said the head of Spanish diplomacy.
He announced that tomorrow he would continue his visit with meetings with President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić.
“These are meetings at the highest level, which are a confirmation of good relations between the two countries and our cooperation. We had the opportunity to confirm that when Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez visited Serbia, and also through the return visit of President Vučić to Madrid in February 2022”, said Albares.
He said that Spain’s goals during the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU were to work on economic recovery, environmental protection, energy security and transition at the level of the entire EU, as well as to pay more attention to social issues.
Albares said that he was talking with representatives of the European institutions and member states about organising a ministerial conference with the countries of the Western Balkans, in order to bring the values that the EU worked on closer to the citizens, as well as the values we wanted to have in common.
“In short, we will continue to work together, both at the bilateral level between Serbia and Spain and at the EU level, to which Spain will contribute during its presidency of the Council of the EU”, said the head of Spanish diplomacy.
Source: Tanjug
