Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-28-Speech-3-059-000"
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"en.20120328.16.3-059-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Members, Mr Kacin, EU enlargement is a success story for the EU and for Europe and, after this excellent debate, I look forward to continuing our enhanced cooperation with the European Parliament during our Presidency, not only with regard to Serbia’s integration process, but in respect of all the countries with an EU perspective.
Serbia has been granted EU candidate status as a result of its positive reform efforts in many different areas. It has carried out important reforms in a short space of time, particularly in the areas of the rule of law and fundamental rights, and it has cooperated with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in an entirely satisfactory way and engaged intensively in regional cooperation. Progress in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue will be very significant, not only for Serbia and Kosovo, but for the region as a whole, and the recent breakthrough is an example to be followed. It is pragmatic solutions, not inflexible attitudes, that are crucial when difficult conflicts are to be resolved.
There is a continuing need for progress both internally within Serbia and externally, for example in relations between Belgrade and Priština. Progress in relation to EU integration is, as we all know, based on merit. How much progress Serbia has made next will be assessed in connection with the Commission’s progress report in the autumn. It is my hope that we will be able to initiate accession negotiations with Serbia as soon as possible.
During the discussions today we have touched on a number of the areas in which reforms are required. I will just highlight a few key problems. It is vital that the efforts to combat corruption and organised crime continue. Serbia has made huge strides in combating organised crime and has worked well and actively with its neighbouring countries, which has resulted in a number of significant arrests. There is no doubt that effective cooperation with neighbouring countries is important in view of the cross-border nature of organised crime. The Serbian authorities have done some important work in this area, and I hope the authorities will take the success in combating organised crime as inspiration to also make an extra effort to combat corruption, which is an area where there is still a great deal of work to be done.
With regard to the economy, there is a need to implement structural reforms in order to promote productivity, limit the state budget deficit and alleviate the effects of the international economic crisis, particularly for the most vulnerable sections of society. In this regard, it is a positive step that the Serbian Government has taken important initiatives to promote conditions for growth for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Finally, I would like to draw attention to the enormous amount of effort that Serbia has made in contributing to regional reconciliation. Over the last four years, the government, with President Tadić at the helm, has made a vital contribution to healing the wounds left by the acts of war in the 1990s. In so doing, the country has played its part in enabling the whole of the Western Balkans to look forward to a brighter future. This is obviously something that we in the EU should recognise and support, and at the same time, we in Parliament, the Commission and the Council are doing everything we can to encourage Serbia to remain on the path of reform so that the negotiations with the EU can get underway more quickly."@en1
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