Minister of European Integration Tanja Miščević spoke with the EURACTIV portal about the upcoming reforms and Serbia’s European path.

Our goal is to focus even more on the reforms and so speed up our European integration, but, above all, to improve the lives of the citizens of our country. It is important that our citizens get accurate and clear information regarding why we align with the EU standards and what that means in our everyday lives. Concrete reform steps, taken in each specific domain, will gradually ensure Serbia’s improvement.

In the diverse offer of media content available in Serbia, the readers of EURACTIV will have another important point of view regarding the accession to the EU, as well as what the European Union and the Government of Serbia do together using EU funds to help achieve these important goals, especially at a time that is so challenging in the political, economic, and energy-related sense.

“The good news in the Serbian media sphere is the return of the EURACTIV portal, which is fully dedicated to EU developments. The citizens of Serbia, but also those in the region who understand our language, will have an opportunity to get information about all EU policies, the most important global political developments as they relate to European Integration, as well as the impact of these policies on all social domains in the member states, candidate states, and potential candidates for EU membership,” Minister of European Integration Tanja Miščević said for EURACTIV.

Miščević added that it is very important that our citizens get accurate and clear information regarding why we align with the EU standards and what that means in our everyday lives.

“Getting information about the rule of law, the minority rights, more transparent work of the public administration, digitization, as well as food safety, a healthier environment, energy stability, building better roads, and better education and medical treatment is equally important. I am convinced that we will have many examples of good practices, as well as the examples showing how all these topics shape the everyday lives of the EU citizens themselves,” Minister of European Integration pointed out, noting that this Government’s priority is improving the rule of law.

“Our goal is to reach the standards that are an integral part of the negotiation process, which represent examples of good practices of the EU member states. It is important that our citizens get the information that the implementation of the planned reforms ensures greater legal safety for all of us and a greater trust in the public institutions. Thus we send out a message to potential investors – as well as to all our international partners – that Serbia is a legally predictable and stable country. As for how beautiful a place to live in it is, there is no need to be convincing anyone of that,” Minister Miščević said.

She explained that concrete reform steps, taken in each specific domain, will gradually ensure improvement, which will be evident primarily in the changes of the judicial system, announced to take place in early February. They result from the adopted amendments to the Constitution and have a significant impact on the legal safety of Serbia’s citizens and on a more efficient fight against corruption. An important additional step is the drawing up of a new Anti-Corruption Strategy, to be adopted in the first half of this year.

The Minister also noted that, immediately following the forming of the Government, working on the amendments to the Law on Public Information and the Media and the Law on Electronic Media continued, as well as that their implementation should ensure a favourable environment for journalists to work in, ideas and views to be put forward, and the public interest to be achieved, which will be resulting in a more ordered and developed media market.

“Together with the EU, we have been fighting against illegal migration, and this government has aligned Serbia’s visa policies with the EU to a significant extent in the course of two months, by introducing visas for six countries with the greatest number of migrants. We will be working on further alignments with the EU lists of third countries for which visas are needed, especially for those which pose a risk of irregular migration to EU safety, but above all the safety of Serbia and our citizens. Last but not least importantly, we are committed to having as successful a regional cooperation as possible in the fight against migrant smuggling,” Miščević said.

It is also important that the readers of the EURACTIV portal are informed about what the European Union and the Government of Serbia do together using EU funds to help achieve these important goals, especially at a time that is so challenging in the political, economic, and energy-related sense.

“An instance of especially great and important help of the European Union, in the conditions of a serious global energy crisis, is the urgent grant to Serbia’s budget in the amount of 165 million euros for the energy sector. The very fact that we will use these EU pre-accession assistance funds this year to provide aid to our citizens and small and medium enterprises, ensuring a regular supply of energy sources, speaks to the practical importance of our partnership with the EU. This solidarity of the EU and its citizens, as one of the EU’s key values, has been clear and evident to us on multiple occasions in the past decade. Solidarity is a value that we, citizens of Serbia, can recognize and share too,” Minister of European Integration said.

Miščević concluded that intensive visits from and to the officials of the EU and its member states is always an opportunity to talk about partnership and cooperation.

“Just this week I have been having talks with the officials of Sweden, which holds the Presidency of the EU Council. This will be followed by a planned visit to Berlin and, lastly, this year’s first working visit to the European Commission in Brussels. Our common goal is to focus even more on the reforms and so speed up our European integration, but, above all, to contribute to improving the lives of our country’s citizens,” Miščević said.

This text was taken from euractiv.rs owing to the partnership of the EURACTIV network and the MONDO portal, which is part of Adria Media Group.