EU Commissioner asks Serbian Prime Minister for cooperation on reforms: The will of the Serbian people must be heard

“Work with us on reforms, so that your membership in the European Union becomes possible,” said European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, in Belgrade, after meeting with Serbian Prime Minister, Gjuro Macut, on April 29. Kos highlighted judicial reform, the fight against corruption, media freedom and improving the electoral process as problems that Serbia needs to work on.

"Work with us to create an independent judiciary that can effectively fight corruption, to enforce the law and to create institutions that will enable free media, where all opinions are represented," the European Commissioner emphasized.

"Work with us to establish an electoral framework that will ensure that the will of the Serbian people is heard and that decisions are made based on it," she added.

The European Commissioner assessed that without these changes, Serbia "cannot progress".

"What we are asking for is actually very close to what the people protesting in the streets are asking for," Kos said, referring to the months-long mass protests in Serbia.

A day earlier, during a visit to Prague, Kos also spoke about Kosovo's application for EU membership, saying that before Kosovo receives candidate country status, it will have to meet several preconditions, such as normalizing relations with Serbia.

She described her first meeting with Prime Minister Macut, since taking office as head of the Serbian Government, as "very positive".

She said she supports Serbia's European integration and expects the government to "do its part."

"I am confident that I can count on you as a partner in this effort," she told the prime minister.

The European Commissioner added that she shares the same position as Prime Minister Macut regarding solving problems in society through the involvement of all actors.

"Because true transformation must come from within, it cannot come from without," she added.

Kos announced that during the two-day visit to Belgrade there will be a series of meetings.

She said she will meet with representatives of the ruling and opposition political parties, civil society organizations, as well as with representatives of students who have blocked the faculties, but also with those who are against the blockades.

Prime Minister Gjuro Macut stated that commitment to European integration is the "absolute priority" of the government he leads.

"Accelerating the process, opening new negotiating classes, will constitute the basis of the work of the Government of Serbia," he added.

He expressed hope that the issue of education will be one of the key elements of Commissioner Kos's visit to Belgrade.

"To support our efforts to establish dialogue, to preserve that dialogue that has been frozen over the past few months. That its strong support will influence us to establish this process as soon as possible and that in the coming days we will return Serbia to the right path in the field of education, that is, to where we stopped a few months ago," added Macut.

He assessed that although negotiations with the EU have not progressed at the desired speed in the last three years, Serbia is "intensively implementing" reforms to improve the rule of law.

The six-month-long mass protests and student blockades were sparked by an accident at the Novi Sad Railway Station, where a ceiling collapse in early November killed 16 people.

The government claims that the students' demands have been met, inviting them to unblock the faculties.

Students, on the other hand, declare that their demands have not been met and that the blockades will continue.

The student protests have become a symbol of a broader dissatisfaction with the rule of law in Serbia – including the question of whether systemic negligence and corruption led to the collapse of the roof at Novi Sad's railway station and the deaths of 16 people.

Behind the students' demands stand, in addition to hundreds of thousands of citizens who have gathered for months in protests, many university professors, education workers, farmers, lawyers and actors./ REL