Brnabic meets new EP president in Brussels: Enlargement agenda one of the most important things

Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja Acimovic

The prime minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, led the Serbian delegation in Brussels on Tuesday.

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When asked what the position of the new president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, is on the issue of EU enlargement, Brnabic said:

"The position that is in line with the European Commission is that the enlargement agenda is one of the most important things. After all, for the European Parliament as well, the majority of MEPs in the European Parliament are MEPs who would vote and who represent the enlargement agenda. I thanked the MEPs for their participation in our inter-party dialogue.

"I will have meetings with MEPs on Friday, I invited the new president of the European Parliament to visit. What shows the attitude towards Serbia is that her first official meeting in Brussels was with the delegation from Serbia," said Brnabic.

According to the prime minister, it was a long day in Brussels.

"We entered the 12th hour of meetings, it was a long day, we started this morning at 7:30 am, the first meeting was with the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, David McAllister. What is extremely important and what speaks best about where Serbia is today and how Serbia ranks today in the institutions of the European Union, how much we have progressed and how fast and successfully we are going, is the day itself.

The fact is that we had meetings with the president of the European Commission through the president of the European Council to the president of the European Parliament to the president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, even with two commissioners, Enlargement Comissioner Varhelyi, and Commissioner for Justice Reynards.

"It is certainly something that doesn't happen often. And it speaks to how much the EU is committed to Serbia, how much attention they pay to all the reforms we have implemented, including the referendum. Everyone, without exception, congratulated us on the success of that referendum," Brnabic noted.

Brnabic on Borrell's statement: I do not see Serbia in that

Regarding the statement of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell that there is no place in Europe for denial of genocide, Brnabic said that she did not see Serbia in it, and that she had not heard that the statement was directed at Serbia.

Asked whether she talked about it directly with Borrell during the meetings and what her response to that statement was, Brnabic said that they did not talk about it at the meetings.

"But I really did not hear it as something that was addressed to Serbia, I heard it as a general statement, part of European values, something that is important for our entire region and the entire Western Balkans. I certainly did not hear it as sent directly to Serbia and I do not see Serbia in that," Brnabic told reporters in Brussels.

Josep Borrell said yesterday that there is no place in Europe for, as he said, denial of genocide, for celebration of war crimes and war criminals.

Borrell said that during a press conference after a meeting of the Stabilization and Association Council of Serbia with the EU, stating that there is no place in Europe for those who publicly deny genocide and undermine the integrity of neighboring countries.

(Telegraf.rs)