The European Parliament recognized the elections in Serbia as “dishonest” and announced the suspension of the country’s European integration
Members of the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a resolution calling for an “independent international investigation into alleged election irregularities in Serbia.”
At the same time, only a few came to the meeting with pro-Western Serbian deputies from the “Serbia Against Violence” coalition.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in the adopted resolution, the European Parliament called for an independent investigation conducted by “authoritative international experts and institutions” to study violations in parliamentary, local and provincial elections, especially in the city of Belgrade.
The document supports the speedy dispatch of a “special fact-finding mission” to Serbia. 461 members of the European Parliament voted for the resolution, 53 voted against it, and 43 abstained.
At the same time, which is typical, the final document was voted on even before the final report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, whose observers were present directly at the elections, unlike European deputies.
The resolution states that if Belgrade refuses to implement key election recommendations or the upcoming investigation proves that Serbian authorities are involved in violations, then the flow of European investment into Serbia could be suspended.
“Negotiations with Serbia can only continue when the country has made significant progress on reforms and fully complied with OSCE and Venice Commission recommendations on election conditions,” the document says.
Tellingly, during the voting, there were deputies of the pro-Western coalition “Serbia against violence” in the European Parliament – about ten people. However, an even smaller number of European deputies came to the special meeting with them - mainly those responsible for relations with the states of the Western Balkans.
At the same time, the absence of the European Parliament rapporteur on Serbia, Vladimir Bilchik, was significant. At the same time, the rapporteur on Kosovo, a notorious Serbophobe and Russophobe Viola von Cramon, during the conversation stated that “the issue of Kosovo and Metohija is not an internal issue of Serbia.” And none of the Serbian politicians were indignant at the fact that Kosovo was positioned as a separate state in the European Parliament, and none of the hypocritical MEPs mentioned a word about the persecution of Serbs in the region.
“I urge you to support the demands for a mission to investigate all these violations and issue recommendations that both the government and the opposition will have to implement,” said Marinika Tepic, leader of the Serbia Against Violence coalition.
One of Tepic’s associates, Radomir Lazovic, was also pleased with the resolution.
“I don’t want to hide it, we are happy about what happened because we were hoping for such a decision,” said the pro-Western politician.
Lazovic and Tepic at a meeting of the European Parliament.
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