EPP opposes the debate on the elections in Serbia

2024-01-12 17:41:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

EPP opposes the debate on the elections in Serbia

EPP

The European People's Party (EPP) has opposed the demands that the European Parliament, as an urgent topic, debate the elections that Serbia held in December of last year and the remarks about the voting process that have been made not only by the opposition, but also by observers. international elections.

Parliamentary, local and provincial elections were held in Serbia on December 17, 2023, which were won by the Serbian Progressive Party of the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vu?i?.

Opposition to the debate has been confirmed for Radio Free Europe by several sources in the European Parliament.

Vucic's party is an associate member of the EPP. This parliamentary group has the largest number of deputies in the EP. According to sources, the EPP has opposed the debate on the elections in Serbia, arguing that before this debate can be held, the final report of the election observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, ODHIR, must be awaited. The publication of this report is said to take place at the end of February.

The fact that the EPP would oppose the placement of the debate on the elections in Serbia on the plenary agenda was also confirmed by the MEP, Klemen Groshel, who was the leader of the EP observation mission for the December 17 elections.

"There will be no debate because of the opposition of the EPP", he said. According to Groshel, "of course there is no need to wait for ODHIR's report, since the EP had its own observation mission on the ground.

"This is just an act of evasion by the EPP. Also, unfortunately, it is a signal in which direction the EPP is evolving politically and on which side of values ??and principles it bases its policy towards the future of the Western Balkans", said the Slovenian deputy from the ranks of the liberal group in the European Parliament. .

Even Tonino Piculla, the Croatian MEP of the Socialist and Democratic group, has confirmed the same information. But, according to him, at the beginning of the plenary session, when the agenda will be presented, he will request that the debate on the elections in Serbia be put on the agenda with an urgent procedure.

However, Vladimir Bilçik, a deputy from the ranks of the EPP who is also the rapporteur for Serbia in the European Parliament, told Radio Free Europe that "no single party can prevent the debate in the Parliament".

"No grouping in the European Parliament has the possibility to block anything by itself. The European Parliament takes collective decisions, with a majority of political groups", he said.

"We must discuss what happened in the elections in Serbia. At the same time, this discussion should be based on facts and take into consideration the final report of ODHIR, which will come in the following weeks", he added.

Other EU institutions continue to repeat the previous position regarding the elections in Serbia that "all concerns about irregularities in the elections should be properly investigated", and that "everyone should refrain from violent actions while dissent they should solve them through legal means".

An international mission that monitored the election said after the vote that the SNS had gained an unfair advantage through biased media, through Vucic's influence, and had also noted irregularities in the vote such as vote buying.

The Serbian authorities have denied all these accusations./ Rel