Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to address the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Serbia as my four year term as Serbia’s ambassador to the UK is slowly approaching its end. I intend to be brief in my opening speech in order to leave more time for Q & A part. But let me at the outset wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
As you surely know, the new government in Serbia was inaugurated after the parliamentary elections held last May. The coalition includes Serbian Progressive Party, Socialist Party of Serbia and United Regions of Serbia, the latter two being also members of the previous coalition government. The Prime Minister and Minister of Interior is Ivica Dačić, the leader of the Socialist Party. The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Head of the National Security Council is Aleksandar Vučić, the leader of the Progressive Party. Mlađan Dinkić, leader of the United Regions of Serbia, is Minister of Finance and Economy.

In May 2012 Serbia’s voters also elected the new President of the Republic. Tomislav Nikolić, then the Serbian Progressive Party leader, replaced incumbent Boris Tadić, then leader of the Democratic Party, who had been occupying the post for two terms, from June 2004 to May 2012. Democratic Party, which was the key member of the previous coalition government (ever since 2008), is now the largest opposition party, while the Mayor of Belgrade Dragan Đilas has recently replaced Boris Tadić as the Party’s leader.

The bad shape of economy is the key explanation for the voters’ dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, the victory of Mr. Nikolić over Mr. Tadić and a slightly better election performance of the Serbian Progressive Party than the performance of the Democratic Party. Unemployment has exceeded 25% and this figure alone speaks volumes.
In spite of the fact that Mr. Dačić leads the party which came third in the elections (second among the members of the new coalition), he was given the mandate to form the government. The strongest parliamentary party – the Serbian Progressive Party – has the largest number of the members of the Cabinet. Its political evolution explains the election success: born in 2008, after splitting from the far-right Serbian Radical Party, the Serbian Progressive Party made a decisive step towards the political centre, giving up previous nationalistic position and declaring itself as a pro-European party. Therefore, the new government has been assembled around a coalition programme based on the following premises: (1) continuation and acceleration of Serbia’s progress towards the EU; (2) comprehensive legal and judicial reforms, including resolute fight against corruption; and (3) economic reforms aimed at re-establishing of the economic growth and stabilisation of public finances.

Some observers were rather sceptical with respect to the sincerity of these commitments, given the background of certain key players in the new government. Almost six months after the establishment of the government, one may agree with those who were making parallels with Nixon going to China, or Begin to Camp David: it is somehow easier for an ironclad conservative or patriot than for a suspicious pink to make a step into a treacherous ground of the dialogue with a former enemy. The Prime Minister Dačić met Kosovo’s Prime Minister Tachi in Brussels in October for the first time, thus initiating top-level negotiations under the auspices of Baroness Ashton. Serbia has shown its dedication to achieving a visible and sustainable improvement in relations with Kosovo by implementing the previously reached agreements, especially the one on integrated boundary management (IBM), as well as by tackling a number of other sensitive issues. These issues concern protection of Serbian cultural and religious heritage in the territory of Kosovo, introduction of liaison officers of Kosovo in the EU Delegation in Belgrade and that of Serbia in the EU Office in Priština, and commitment to work together with Priština authorities in order to ensure a transparent flow of money in support of Kosovo Serb community. During his talks with the Foreign Secretary William Hague, both in London and, more recently, in Belgrade, the Prime Minister Dačić expressed his willingness to solve comprehensively the Kosovo issue within the time framework of his government’s four year term. Serbia is ready for this kind of dialogue and for making some tough decisions, while it expects Priština to accept certain concessions as well, in order to eventually create a win-win, sustainable solution. With a view to a possible decision of the European Council to open accession negotiations with Serbia during the Irish presidency, Serbia welcomes the recent GAC conclusion that the Council will examine the progress on all the above issues on the basis of a report to be presented by the Commission and the High Representative in spring 2013. The Council has committed itself to assess the report during the Irish presidency and, provided the assessment is positive, the Commission will be invited by the European Council to submit without delay (and I read it as “until the end of June 2013”) a proposal for a framework for the accession negotiations with Serbia and to analytically examine the EU acquis beginning with the chapters on judiciary and fundamental rights, and justice, freedom and security.

These GAC conclusions actually reconfirm the relevance of two of the above mentioned Serbia’s government strategic goals – its unreserved commitment to bringing Serbia into the phase of accession talks and eventually to the full EU membership, as well as to carrying out comprehensive legal and judicial reforms, including robust fight against corruption. Let me point out that the last elections produced an overwhelming parliamentary majority of the pro-EU parties: out of 250 MPs, just 21 belong to anti-EU Democratic Party of Serbia led by the former (until 2008) Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica. All other 229 MPs belong to the parties, both in government and in opposition, which see Serbia as an inalienable part of Europe. However, when it comes to the polls, a downward trend has been recorded in last two years, reducing the support for the EU membership from 64% to 49%. Anyhow, those who are against the EU are at the level of 33%, which still provides for a clear YES majority if a referendum were to be held on the date of the last polls, but the decline is not to be neglected. One may find several explanations for the population showing less enthusiasm for the EU. Some of these explanations could be easily understood elsewhere in Europe, including here, in the UK. The crisis of the Euro-zone has definitively shown some structural deficiencies of the EU project. Many Serbs are regularly visiting Greece and they are able to witness how messy the things are there. On the other hand, there are some specific explanations for the growing euro-scepticism in Serbia. Namely, the policy of conditionalities, if excessive, tends to become counter-productive. Any encouraging step, like commencing the accession talks, could easily reverse the trend.

Although the talks with Priština are such a huge and important topic that it sometimes overshadows all our other efforts on the European path, it is important to outline that a number of systemic reforms is expected to be carried out in a range of fields. Given the public perception of the scopes of corruption and the findings of the Commissions Report on Serbia’s EU progress, some robust measures have been taken – both in terms of enhancing the capacities of the state bodies in charge of fighting corruption and in displaying strong political support for their activities, which led to a number of high-profile arrests.

Let me conclude by using this opportunity to express my wish for the parliamentary cooperation between our two states. I hope that your announced visit to Serbia, as well as Serbian Speaker Nebojša Stefanović’s visit to the UK will significantly contribute to further development of our relations that have made a steady progress which I have been witnessing since 2008.