Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Serbia achieved 71% of the activities from the action plan for chapter 23, planned for Q4 of this year, with the highest number of activities fulfilled in the field of fundamental rights. Somewhat poorer results have been achieved in the field of combating corruption, where one in two activities have been implemented, with the majority related to amendments to laws. The presentation of the report on the implementation of the Action Plan for chapter 23 in Q4 2016 indicated Serbia was late with certain activities, such as the adoption of the law on the Anti-Corruption Agency, the law on financing political activities, and drafting a code of conduct for deputies.

“We had the best results within the sub-chapter fundamental rights, where the percentage of compliance with the obligations was 89%, while a lower success rate is found in the field of combating corruption”, said Minister of Justice of the Republic of Serbia Nela Kuburović on 22 December, speaking at the presentation of the fourth quarterly report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 23.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that the European Commission is carefully monitoring the efforts made in the implementation of the Action Plan for chapter 23, and it appreciates the efforts invested by Serbia into reporting on activities related to the implementation of this plan. He assessed that Serbia’s negotiations during the past six months gained a lot of momentum with the opening of four chapters.

The Head of the Negotiation Team of Serbia in the accession negotiations with EU Tanja Miščević noted that Serbia crossed a significant road from the preparation for opening chapters and analytical assessment of readiness for opening through screening, when it did not know how to achieve the required standards, to the drafting of the Action Plan and the opening of chapters. Miščević said that during the coming year Serbia will be faced with several expert missions by the Commission and the first large report by the European Commission on chapters 23 and 24.

Author: MP, taken from www.euractiv.rs