On 18 October, Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret submitted the European Commission’s annual report to the Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, Vladimir Orlić, and thanked him for the opportunity to discuss the recommendations of the report.

Ambassador Giaufret noted that the report highlighted the need for Serbia to align progressively with EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, and also reiterated specifically the parts of the report on the rule of law. Russian aggression in Ukraine has put enlargement at the centre of political attention and this is the time to come together and accelerate the pace of reform. The report highlighted that further work and political commitment were needed to continue and deepen reforms and address shortcomings. These were particularly mentiond in the key areas of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime, media freedom, freedom of assembly and the domestic handling of war crimes.

The Ambassador stressed that the report gives credit to improvements of the electoral framework through implementation of the measures identified during the inter-party dialogue and some of the ODIHR recommendations.