Izvor: N1 televizija, 27.Avg.2018, 13:42 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
MEP: Serbia fails to meet EU norms on media and minorities
Ivo Vajgl, a Slovenian member of the European Parliament, said on Monday that Serbia advanced in implementing the rule of law but that it still did not adjust its standards with the value of the European Union, the Beta news agency reported.
Vajgl, who is the Liberal parties’ Rapporteur for Serbia, told the Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the failure to adopt the EU norms was most visible in the media and minority >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << issues in Serbia.
“During that debate (before the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee), I said that I have a feeling since I used to be a journalist and lived in Belgrade, that 30 years ago there were more creativity and freedom of the press than it is the case in Serbia today,” he said.
Vajgl added that Belgrade made some progress regarding the chapters 23 and 24 (judiciary and fundamental rights and justice, freedom and security).
He said the authorities established new institutions to monitor the rule of law, work of the police and the judiciary.
“However, there are more institutions than the results of their work,” he added.
Vajgl, also a member of the Delegation for Stabilisation and Serbia’s Accession, said that the fight against the organised crime was a serious issue which deserved special attention in the reports on Belgrade’s progress toward the EU.
The RFE said that Vajgl was the first European official who commented on many mafia showdowns in Serbia followed by a deficient number of solved cases.
“There have been some 80 cases of typical mafia-style killings in Serbia in the last five-six years and that only in six of those cases someone was brought to justice. All the others disappeared somewhere along the judicial channels,” Vajgl said.
He added that there was a serious doubt that the delay in some of those cases and unwillingness to solve them had something to do with the involvement of the politics and perhaps some high ranking politicians close to a mafia.
“So, it is a serious issue, and I think we have to shed some light on it when we talk about Serbia’s and some other Western Balkans countries’ progress,” Vajgl said.
As an example of the rule of law and judiciary inefficiency in Serbia, Vajgl mentioned the Savamala case (when masked men demolished privately owned barracks and mistreated people in 2016, reportedly because the objects stood in the way of the construction of the Belgrade Waterfront, an expensive Serbia - UAE project).
So far, only one officer received a suspended sentence because the police failed to respond to people’s calls.
“So, yes, Serbia has to commit itself to obligations more energetically when it comes to fighting the organised crime,” Vajgl said.
Regarding the national minorities, Vajgl said that “the state’s effort to control their organisations was visible.”
