Rule of law is Serbia's European integration priority

BELGRADE – Serbian government officials said Tuesday that strengthening the rule of law is an absolute priority in the country’s European integration process, as the efficiency of reforms in all other segments of society is highly dependent on that.

Tanja Miscevic, Serbia’s chief negotiator in the accession talks with the EU, said while opening a panel dubbed “Negotiations as priority – priorities in negotiations” at the Public Policy Institute in Belgrade that the true goal is not EU membership per se, but rather European integration in the true sense of the word - to build a stable, developed and democratic Serbia.

Over the past few weeks, Serbian negotiators have not been in any way limited by the pre-election campaign in Serbia, and they had a number of important meetings in Brussels that dealt with chapters of vital significance for the citizens, Miscevic said.

The priorities for the Serbian government in the talks with the EU will include agriculture and rural development, energy, environmental protection, transport and regional development, and the chapters relevant to the areas will be the most difficult and most expensive to introduce into Serbia’s legal system.

Still, the priority of priorities is Chapters 23 and 24, as without the rule of law none of the mentioned areas can be effectively regulated, she said.

Serbian Minister of Justice and Public Administration Nikola Selakovic said that Chapters 23 and 24 are the backbone of the negotiations.

Serbia has clear guidelines in these negotiations, but it does not have any clear criteria of the European acquis, as every member-state and candidate-state has its own particularities, which is due to the fact that these states have...

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