Brnabic: Serbia is doing everything to open Cluster 3, ODIHR to publish final opinion on Law on Electoral Roll

President of the Serbian National Assembly Ana Brnabic said today that Serbia is doing everything to open Cluster 3 (part of EU accession negotiations) by the end of this year.

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She also stated that the final opinion of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) regarding Serbia's Draft Law on the Unified Electoral Roll is expected by the end of the day.

Brnabic stated that amendments to that law are one of the basic things that Serbia needs to do in order to open Cluster 3.

"As soon as that opinion is delivered to us and as soon as we analyze it we will inform the citizens about it," Brnabic told a press conference held today in the National Assembly.

She also said that the government has undertaken to amend that law in order to further increase citizens' trust in the electoral process and continue reforms to improve that process.

Brnabic said that she will have important meetings in Brussels tomorrow and the day after - with Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations at the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighborhood Gert Jan Koopman, and others.

"All these topics will also be the topics of those meetings. We are doing our best to open Cluster 3 by the end of the year and continue our European integrations. I am deeply convinced that we are at a turning point at the moment and that unless there is some positive response or news from the EU by the end of the year, our citizens will become completely disinterested, and to a large extent, unfortunately, they already are, when it comes to our European path. So, that is what we are working on at the moment," said Brnabic.

The National Assembly president also stated that a meeting was held today with the delegation of the National Convention on the EU, which brings together 16 civil society organizations that deal with every aspect of Serbia's EU path.

Brnabic revealed that she invited Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starovic and all members of Assembly's Committee on European Integration to that meeting so that representatives of the opposition, as well as representatives of the EU Delegation to Serbia, would be able to attend.

"We had a good, open conversation. There is great misunderstanding and great mistrust between us, but in any case on our European path, to the degree to which we want that path to be successful, we have to find a way to work together. And the greatest responsibility to try to find a way to restore that trust is on me as the president of the National Assembly, and I will work on that in the coming days," said Brnabic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)