Coalition prEUgovor welcomes the decision of the Serbian Government's Negotiating Team to publish the European Commission's Report on the current state in chapters 23 i 24 for Serbia, so called non-paper, which is available at the European Integration Office website. We consider the availability of documents from the negotiation process to be essential to the informing of the citizens, inclusion of all the actors that could contribute to this process, and most importantly, for the success and the sustainability of the reforms that are conducted. This is especially important in situation where there are no reliable information, or when they exist, but are not publicly available, which could indicate the state of affairs in certain areas. This is also one of the recommendations mentioned on the first page of the EC Report, where Serbia is urged to increase the attention and efforts in the field of providing statistical data.
Generally speaking, non-paper provides the state of affairs in the area of the rule of law and the progress made by Serbia in the second half of 2016. Since due to the new work dynamics, the Progress report will not be published during this year, but in the Spring of 2018, this is at the same time the only report of the European commission dealing in Serbia and the key areas concerning the rule of law. In the report, EC concludes that Serbia has set ambitious deadlines in the Action plans for the chapters 23 and 24, and that their implementation is in the early stages, mainly the drafting of laws strategies, estimations and analysis. In the coming period, focus of tracking success will shift from evaluating of the legislative framework to the evaluating the efficiency of the reforms in practice, as well as the institutional capacities for the implementation of laws. Moreover, European commission points out to the priorities on which Serbia needs additional work - availability of data, judicial reform, fight against corruption, fundamental rights and the fight against organized crime.
The whole text of the press release is available on this link.