Davenport: EU membership is unifying goal

NOVI SAD - The campaign for the recent early election in Serbia has shown that the country's accession into the EU is a general goal that unifies the ruling and most of the opposition parties, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport has said.

That does not mean there is a general consensus in Serbia about the country joining the EU, but that there is a consensus in the parliament, he said at a debate on the relations between Serbia and the EU after the start of the accession talks in January, which was held in Novi Sad on Friday.

The EU is happy with the work of the Serbian government when it comes to the technical aspects of EU integration, but it is now time to raise the level of coordination between ministries and government agencies in completing priority tasks, he stressed. It is a great challenge for the next government, Davenport noted, adding that the date of Serbia's accession into the EU would depend on the pace of the most important structural and economic reforms.

After the election, the EU expects from Serbia to continue the talks with Pristina, which means, above all, the implementation of the agreement signed in Brussels on April 19, 2013, and a constructive approach to the joint goal of normalizing the relations, he pointed out.

Once of the key goals is to conduct the reforms that are part of chapters 23 and 24, which refer to the judiciary, battle against corruption and discrimination, minority rights and information, he said.

The meeting was attended by officials of the provincial government, experts from Belgrade and Novi Sad and head of the Vojvodina Executive Council Bojan Pajtic, who said that EU integration would bring long-term benefits to the people of Serbia.