The meeting was headed by MP Miroslav Aleksic who spoke of the extent of the political and social crisis Serbia is in, stressing that it needs to be resolved swiftly in order to prevent escalation and undesirable scenarios.

“Normalisation of the situation is something that should be worked on and the opposition parties’ response to it is setting up a transitional government”, said Aleksic.

EP rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula stressed that the goal of his visit is to collect as many relevant information as needed to submit an objective EP Report on Serbia which should find its place before the MEPs in May.

To that end, MPs Marinika Tepic, Zdravko Ponos, Biljana Djordjevic, Borko Stefanovic, Pavle Grbovic and Djordje Stankovic said that the current situation is the result of there being no rule of law or conditions for a fair and democratic election, because of the non-functioning of the institutions and insufficient freedom of the media. They agreed that a transitional government is the only solution that could lead to a political articulation and dialogue. They stressed that the rapporteur’s visit comes at a time when the prosecution is examining the operation of the non-governmental institutions in Serbia and in Novi Sad there has been an arrest of opposition councillors following the election of Mayor of Novi Sad, which makes it especially delicate.

The officials agreed that the political crisis is slowing down Serbia’s path to full membership in the community of European countries which, they believe, must remain the country’s chief foreign policy goal.