Vladimir Prebilic, an MEP from the Group of the Greens, said that a European Parliament (EP) mission will travel to Serbia to observe the October 25 snap elections despite receiving an eleventh-hour invitation from Serbian authorities.
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Serbian Parliament Speaker and Acting President Ana Brnabic extended the invitation after the formal deadline had already passed.
Prebilic said the invitation arrived “at the eleventh hour,” but that the mission will travel to Serbia.
“The international community cannot send any kind of mission to Belgrade, or to any other country, unless an official invitation is received. That was waited on until the absolute last moment, and I hope that everything will go smoothly now,” he said.
He noted that the European Parliament was largely prepared for this scenario.
“It is a shame, and this is not really how you act if you want to host a mission that is supposed to come to Serbia to observe the elections. This is a message in itself, because if an invitation is sent in this manner - it is not very good,” the MEP assessed.
Making it difficult for the diaspora to vote
Prebilic said they received numerous reports from around the world detailing structural obstacles designed to make voting more difficult for Serbian citizens living abroad, which, he said, points to “an uneven playing field.”
“If the authorities wanted to hear the diaspora, as the law says, then they would not create these kinds of problems... What is significant is that the number of those who want to vote in the diaspora has tripled, and the authorities should enable the citizens of Serbia abroad to say who will manage the country in the future. It is truly bad that these kinds of things are happening,” Prebilic pointed out.
The MEP also noted that Brussels is closely monitoring the campaign but acknowledged that the EP lacks the direct authority to enforce changes on the ground. He said that recommendations from both the EP and Commissioner Marta Kos to activate the Serbian electronic media regulator (REM) and clean up voter registers have gone unheeded.
Will Brussels offer congratulations on October 26?
If it becomes clear after the elections, on October 26, that things were not implemented properly, as they would be in a normal democracy, then we will hold off on any congratulations for a while, Prebilic said.
“The primary standpoint is that the elections must be legal and legitimate,” he emphasized, adding that, if Serbia wants to continue on its European path, it needs to change its current relationship with the European Union.
Teme