Fajon says Serbian, European parliament officials to meet next week

Tanja Fajon MEP told N1 on Thursday that she expects Serbian Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic to meet with European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chief David McAllister next week to discuss the next stage of the dialogue between the authorities and opposition.

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“I expect a new meeting between Dacic and McAllister next week. We are talking in the European Parliament in parallel and looking at the next steps. The interest is to get the dialogue started as soon as possible. We have to work on reforms. Serbia has not opened a single chapter and we have to improve the process. The dialogue is important and I hope for an optimistic start to the year,” Fajon said. She added that a multi-party platform should be formed to help create a consensus in society.

She said the European Parliament is concerned about the dialogue because they don’t know who will take part in it. “The first step is a meeting with Dacic. McAllister has spoken to him by phone and expressed support to continue the dialogue,” she said adding that the Serbian side is free to say what it wants in the dialogue.

She said that she had been following the situation in Serbia for a long time and expressed concern over events. “There is a clear need to reduce tensions among all political players and launch institutional reforms of parliament,” Fajon said and added that she feels that some progress was achieved in the first stage.

“I want to remind Serbia that it needs to fulfill its obligations … with the ambition for Serbia to take a step forward towards the EU with reforms,” she said. “I want to support Serbia in all reforms to have it join the European Union as soon as possible. Our main motive is Serbia, the reform process and support,” Fajon said.

Fajon said that the electronic media watchdog REM was an important issue in the first stage, adding that the resignation of Slobodan Cvejic from the REM Council is cause for concern. She added that the media situation is alos worrying. She said that the political leadership had to condemn the threats against N1 reporter Jelena Zoric and the ban on an N1 crew entering a church for a memorial service. “Those events should be condemned and get a legal epilogue to prevent them happening again,” Fajon said.

Teme