Green–Left Front - Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)оwn Parliamentary Group Members Meet with German Bundestag Representatives

The topics of the meeting were the political and social crisis in Serbia, as well as our country's European integration process.

MPs Biljana Djordjevic, Radomir Lazovic, Robert Kozma and Dobrica Veselinovic pointed out that the past year was marked by intense violations of the rule of law, repression by the regime against citizens, police brutality, continuous attacks on free media, and they also spoke about poor electoral conditions. They particularly pointed to the improvised camp in front of the National Assembly, which, they said, serves as a means of pressure on both citizens and the Parliament.

Speaking about the European integration process, Biljana Djordjevic emphasized that citizens' support for the process has never been lower and that it currently stands at only 33%, which is a direct consequence of the state leadership's anti-European propaganda for internal purposes, although it only formally remains on the European path in order to use European funds. The MPs pointed out that one of the reasons for this is the state leadership's contradictory and unclear policy regarding Serbia's membership in the EU. They added that, due to restrictive access to the public media service, which allows them only two to three media appearances per year, they do not have the opportunity to present themselves to the citizens on an equal footing and to present the advantages of membership in the European Union.

"The Government is imposing the idea that Serbia is not joining the EU due to externally imposed conditions, instead of talking about the lack of rule of law, the collapse of democracy and the absence of media freedoms," said Radomir Lazovic.

Robert Kozma assessed that the European Union can significantly assist in the process of building democracy in Serbia, supporting the citizens' struggle for democracy, which, as he pointed out, is the only way to preserve lasting peace in the region and Serbia's accession to the EU. "We need support through insisting on the political criteria and principles of the EU, in order to rebuild collapsed institutions that would function in the interests of citizens," said Kozma.

Dobrica Veselinovic pointed out that Serbia's current foreign policy, which includes the "four pillars", is unsustainable, and as far as the process of joining the European Union is concerned, that is only the government's stance in principle, which can be seen through the long-standing strong connection with Russia through energy agreements and NIS, as well as with China through numerous infrastructure and mining projects and in the domain of the illegal installation of thousands of security cameras as part of the "Safe City" project, which poses a threat to the citizens' privacy and leaves the purpose of data collection questionable.

Anton Hofreiter agreed that it is necessary to work on establishing the rule of law, democracy and freedom of the media in Serbia, emphasising that the EU accession process is the way to achieve these goals. He stressed that Germany strongly supports Serbia on its European path, but also reminded that progress reports indicate a number of problems that are slowing down our country in that process. According to him, it is important that these problems in Serbia are resolved so that Serbian citizens will have the opportunity to become part of the European community as soon as possible.

The meeting continued with discussions on other important topics, such as the non-existence of the REM Council, the issue of Serbia's energy security, and our country's foreign policy priorities.