Serbia’s Minister of European Integration, Tanja Miščević, stated today at the Bled Strategic Forum that the continuation of unilateral measures by Priština against Serbs in Kosovo was not in line with European values.
Speaking on the panel “Europe Whole and Free: Enlargement as a Strategic Project of Reconciliation,” Miščević emphasised that Serbia understood the significance of dialogue in the European Union accession process.
She refrained from engaging in a discussion with Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla but highlighted the importance of respecting human rights, especially those of minorities, and that it was not a European value to say that unilateral measures would be continued.
“It is not a European value to have a year-long ban on the entry of Serbian goods and to block regional cooperation within CEFTA,” Miščević pointed out.
She reminded that Belgrade and Priština, in the context of regional integration, had been participating in the Berlin Process since 2014 and in many other regional initiatives, the aim of which should be to benefit citizens.
Miščević noted that she had been dealing with EU enlargement policy for a long time and that nothing was as it was at the beginning of that idea.
“It cannot even be compared. Everything has changed, of course, through learning from experience. Now, some issues have become important that were not so before, and one of them is how we approach European values,” Miščević stressed, adding that it was a beautiful story but one that was difficult to achieve.
Miščević mentioned that it had taken Europe many decades to secure the rule of law, media freedom, and other issues, while candidate countries did not have decades for that task but were trying to achieve it in a much shorter period.
“We see that there is momentum, and we hope that it exists not only for the new ‘trio’ but also for the Western Balkans,” Miščević said, adding that the accelerated integration into the common market and the Growth Plan were important.
“The opening of Cluster 3 is linked to the Growth Plan, but we are also working on accelerating the rule of law reform to enter IBAR. We are aware that geopolitical criteria and conditions exist. The rule of law as a condition and criterion is difficult to follow, and it will be very important to work on it together with NGOs,” Miščević said.
She also noted that aligning foreign and security policy with the EU was important and reminded that Serbia was the only country participating in all EU missions and that it was preparing for participation in civilian missions as well.
Source: FoNet
