
Serbian civil society organizations do not expect the European Commission to pass a favorable assessment of the situation in the country in its coming progress report, the Beta news agency said on Monday in a report from an online debate on the state of democracy in Serbia.
Those organizations said the report will not be favorable because of a deterioration in democratic processes. It said that the election campaign and events on election day, coupled with the state of emergency introduced in March when the coronavirus pandemic broke out led to the European Union and the rest of the world realizing that the situation in Serbia “is not normal” and that the EU could impose stricter conditions to help the process. They also feel that democracy is something that has to be won from inside.
Political expert Boban Stojanovic said that the report will certainly be bad. He said that the opposition, as the one thing that should limit the authorities, had to fight for democracy but added that their scope is limited. “Vucic had an ideal situation up to now. Serbia seemed to be a normal state but that’s no longer the case. I hope that the EU will show a little political responsibility towards us here to try to solve at least some problems,” he said.
Vladimir Medjak of the European Movement in Serbia said that he does not expect the European Commission report to be neither good nor bad but realistic “if it covers everything that happened”. He said that political parties should fight for democracy along with civic organizations and individuals without relying only on the EU but added that the EU could be stricter towards the authorities just as it was early in the year 2000 before the fall of the Milosevic regime.
Tara Tepavac of the watchdog NGO Crta said that the EU drew attention to all the problems with local institutions in last year’s report and added that she expects this report to point out problems and not turn a blind eye.