MEPs submit more amendments to Serbia report

The amendments will be discussed at a session starting on May 9 prior to the vote by MEPs on May 10.

MEPs want the report to reflect their concerns about the removal of two prosecutors from a corruption investigation into the Serbian national power company (EPS) as well as reports that the Security Information Agency (BIA), under the leadership of pro-Moscow politician Alesandar Vulin, handed its Russian counterparts information on Vladimir Kara-Murzi’s activities in Belgrade. The Russian was sentenced to 25 years in jail.

MEPs also want the word possible deleted from an amendment which speaks about state financing of the Telekom Serbia company feeling that there is no doubt that it is receiving money from the government. They also want to remove the part of the report that expresses satisfaction with the forming of a working group to protect journalists within the prime minister’s cabinet and to clearly state that the media publishing and broadcasting anti-European Union and pro-Russian narrative are close to the authorities and have contributed to the drop in support for Serbia’s European integration.

One of the amendments calls for the report to express regret that high-ranking state officials are ridiculing the Savamala case despite serious violations of rule of law. Masked men, alleged to be under orders from the authorities, tore down several buildings in the Savamala neighborhood where the Belgrade Waterfront project was later built.
Another amendment calls for expressions of regret over Serbia’s violation of agreements with Pristina during the vote on Kosovo’s application to join the Council of Europe, boycott of local elections and intimidation of Kosovo Serb opposition politicians.

MEPs also want to praise Belgrade’s explicit call to the Bosnian Serbs to send their representatives back to Bosnia-Herzegovina institutions.