Bilcik covering up criticism of the Serbian authorities

Bilcik also said that there were no major incidents on election day.

The MEP said that the observer delegation noted that the elections were well organized with some irregularities in terms of reports from the places the observers visited about the registration of additional voters but, he said, not in any great numbers, and about possible vote buying in and around polling stations. According to Bilcik, those were no major incidents but only smaller ones that they observed. He said that on the whole the elections went smoothly and added that it’s good that Serbia will get a representative pluralist parliament.

Bilcik’s statement is not in line with the report by the joint observer mission of the OSCE ODIHR, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and European Parliament.

Reinhold Lopatka, special coordinator and leader of the OSCE observer mission said that the elections were well organized technically but were held in a socially and politically divided context. He added that the election process was dominated by the participation of President Aleksandar Vucic and the use of his name by one of the election tickets coupled with biased media reporting which contributed to the imbalance on the political field.

Lopatka said that the elections were held in a context of vast polarization and intensive competition between opposed political platforms. According to him, concern was voiced before the elections because of the intimidation and harassing of civic activists, human rights defenders and journalists.

PACE observer delegation chief Stefan Schennach said that the truth is slightly shocking in Serbia, that the elections were not fair, that votes were manipulated and that all those things are a problem in a country that wants to go down a democratic path. He said the observers saw that the entire campaign was dominated by the president which, he added, is not the job of the head of state. According to Shennach, the president is a neutral figure that should be a guarantee for the country and everyone. He told N1 that President Vucic managed the elections and was a candidate at all levels from village to the entire republic.

Bilcik’s statement is not his first attempt to “hide” what the Serbian authorities do not like in reports.

Earlier, the MEP was criticized for attempting to leave Telekom Serbia out of the European Parliament report on Serbia’s progress. Bilcik put forward a proposal to omit any mention of the Serbian state-controlled telecommunications company before the report was adopted. An N1 source said that the discussion of the report lasted three hours, much longer than usual, adding that Bilcik’s proposals were not accepted.

A second source told N1 that part of the amendment was deleted to omit scandals involving Telekom but that the role of the company in controlling the media market in Serbia was left in.

A document that N1 had access to showed that Telekom Serbia appealed to the European Union, demanding the removal of any mention of it from the draft report on Serbia’s progress. A group of MEPs submitted several amendments to the report on Serbia’s progress calling for the European Commission progress report to include the Telekom Serbia case in a negative context. Telekom was criticized as an instrument of the ruling party with influence on the media market in Serbia. Other amendments criticized the company for allowing the broadcasting of the Russia Today channel.

Bilcik’s attempt to influence the European Parliament report came just a day after his meeting with Telekom Serbia officials and two days after meeting the owners of the pro-regime Kurir tabloid and TV.

Tepic: I might think Bilcik is on the payroll

Marinika Tepic, deputy leader of the opposition Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), wrote in a Twitter post at the time “I might think that Bilcik is being paid by Telekom and Vucic? No, can’t be…”. She commented the post later saying: “How can you not ask? If we know that many MEPs want the Telekom case investigated and if we from the SSP have provided so much evidence of Telekom misdeeds for years and then Bilcik as Rapporteur for Serbia says no, what does that mean? It means that the Bilcik Case should be investigated and whether the man is someone’ lobbyist or an MEP,” Tepic said.

Bilcik also omitted the worst scandals that happened during the Serbian Progressive Party’s (SNS) time in power in his draft resolution on Serbia presented to the European Parliament. None of those scandals (the Jovanjica marijuana plantation, Krusik munitions plant, Savamala, Belivuk crime clan, Telekom Serbia) were mentioned in the draft document on Serbia which Bilcik submitted to the European Parliament.

Bilcik wrote in that document that the European Parliament expresses its concern over the limited progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime and calls Serbia to intensify the efforts to resolve those problems more efficiently without specifying which problems and MEPs filed a number of amendments insisting on appealing to Serbia to resolve specific cases.

Bilcik spoke up following the armed incident at Banjska in Kosovo to say that no link had been established to Belgrade. No link has been established between official Belgrade and what happened in Banjska and calling for sanctions before the investigation is over is not a constructive way to move forward nor is the criticism of the European Union Rapporteur, he told Kosovo Online.

Interpol issued a warrant for Milan Radoicic, deputy leader of the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb List and Vucic’s close associate, following the Banjska armed incident when four people were killed.

Bilcik clashes with opposition prior to 2022 elections

Most of the opposition involved in the 2021 inter-party dialogue with the authorities on conditions for the 2022 elections (with Bilcik as part of the European Parliament mediator group) rejected the document intended to improve those conditions. Earlier, the authorities agreed to form a body to oversee the media and change the composition of the Republic Election Commission (RIK) to include opposition representatives. Part of the opposition also refused to continue that dialogue saying that the document intended to improve election conditions was “the result of an agreement between the authorities and MEPs”. Opposition MP Miroslav Aleksic said that very little, virtually nothing of what the opposition proposed had been included in the draft document. “We could not accept that document because it is cosmetic more than fundamental,” he said at the time.

Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic said the agreement did not include the opposition, only the authorities and MEPs.

Bilcik responded to the accusations that the working document on election conditions was drafted with the Serbian authorities at the expense of the opposition saying that he refused to be dragged into domestic political fights. We represent the European Parliament, helping the dialogue and carefully listening to everyone, the document is the result of hard work, he said and added that a “solid document” had been drafted. Asked if he would stand in the elections if he were the opposition in Serbia, he said that he would.

SSP to Bilcik: You downplay misdeeds of Serbian authorities

Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) deputy leader Borko Stefanovic at the time criticized European Parliament (EP) Rapporteur for Serbia Vladimir Bilcik for, as he put it, downplaying “literally every one of the many misdeeds of the authorities” in Serbia.

In an open letter, Stefanovic criticized Bilcik for accepting, in an interview with the European Western Balkans, “the regime’s promises and verbal commitment to reforms” as “good enough proof of good faith and reform implementation in Serbia that has been stolen from its citizens.”

“The Progressives telling you that they will improve the state of the rule of law, free the institutions, open the doors of the media to the truth and start the fight against corruption actually means that they won’t do anything. Instead of believing them, read your own report and those of the European Commission and European Parliament, take a look at who the new members of the (Serbian state TV) RTS Managing Board are,” the party of Freedom and Justice quoted Stefanovic as saying.

He assessed that Bilcik’s “downplaying of the authorities’ misdeeds” no longer sounds like unfounded optimism, but as “support for the further harassment of people, destruction of freedoms, media, persecution of the politically unlike-minded, constant creating of tensions in the region and for the Serbian government’s alignment with China and other problematic regimes.”

“Since you are talking about the Serbian opposition and the need for us to get on a train, know that the train operated by the regime that you have been supporting for nine years is going is the wrong direction, and that all the stops are therefore also wrong. With this in mind, I wish to once again inform you that the opposition will decide on participating in the elections on the basis of what we agree on within the dialogue with the European parliamentarians but also depending on the time left to implement all that we agree on, and on the quality of guarantees for the implementation of everything agreed upon,” said Stefanovic.

Bilcik rejected all the accusations made against him at the time. Elections were then held, the results of which formed a parliament that was on many occasion unworthy of its function, and which reminded many citizens of a “circus” rather than of a house of representatives of the people of a state. It worked until November 1, 2023, when Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic dissolved the parliament and called early parliamentary elections, which were held a few days ago.