The parliamentary and local elections in Serbia held on 17 December were marked by numerous irregularities, as indicated by reports from both domestic and international observers. According to CRTA, the results of the Belgrade elections largely stemmed from illegal electoral engineering, specifically noting organized voter migration that significantly influenced the outcome of the close contested elections for the Belgrade City Assembly.
The elections in Serbia were also discussed in the European Parliament, and an urgent resolution on this issue will be adopted at the next plenary session of the EP at the beginning of February. About Serbian elections, international investigation, and the future of the EU integration process we spoke with EP Rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilčik, in Brussels.
European Western Balkans: The process of drafting the European Parliament resolution on Serbia is ongoing. The text will depend on the agreement between political groups. How do you assess the atmosphere among political groups when it comes to the situation in Serbia after the December elections?
Vladimir Bilčik: Well, first and foremost, this house, as always, is paying a lot of attention to what is happening in the Western Balkans and what is happening in Serbia. This house has been very much engaged for years even during the pandemic when we had the Inter-Party Dialogue and this house was also invited to observe the elections in Serbia. I am glad that we had a mission of the European Parliament observers who came to observe the elections in December.
Since then, we have issued our statement after the elections. We have had a lot of media coverage and press conferences. This house has followed up on what has been happening in Serbia ever since. I’d say just as we responded to the events of the shootings in Belgrade and Mladenovac, we held a minute of silence for the victims and stood in solidarity with the people of Serbia. Just as we reacted quickly to the attack in Banjska, for instance. We are also now following up on the elections.
I expect the resolution will be factual and it will be a resolution which can perhaps offer some next steps in terms of what needs to be done.
But it always takes two to tango. The problems of Serbia can never be resolved inside the EU institutions, inside the European Parliament. I hope Serbia will also move on and start constituting its own institutions.
EWB: The opposition in Serbia claims that the elections were stolen, and there are pieces of evidence from both domestic and international observers. Is it an adequate solution to form a new government as soon as possible and continue as if nothing has happened?
VB: I think the election results, and you know it very well, were announced by the Republican Electoral Commission. In this case, it took a lot less time than after the 2022 elections when it took over 90 days to announce the results of the elections.
This time it was faster. I also want to say that we were tasked to observe the parliamentary elections, and there have been a number of complaints and challenges to the voting process. I think these need to be dealt with through proper channels. The courts and other institutions must address these.
At the same time, the results of the parliamentary elections have been announced and I think it is time to start working on new institutions. The members of the Serbian Parliament should take up their mandates and the government should be formed. The country should address all the shortcomings through proper institutional channels.
I’m saying this also because the big question mark is, of course, surrounding especially the local elections in Belgrade. That’s where the result was a lot closer. At the moment, there is a political stalemate in Belgrade.
In terms of the electoral process in Belgrade, I think it’s important that the challenge to the Constitutional Court is dealt with duly and that all relevant authorities are as open and as transparent as possible within the rule of law to make sure that these challenges are properly dealt with.
Following up on the parliamentary elections, whose results have been announced, it is important that while dealing with all political and legal challenges that there is also an institutional formation of the new parliament and new government which helps to address all the systematic shortcomings when it comes to the electoral framework as well. So the problems, which have been observed, are not repeated.
We still need to wait for the final OSCE/ODIHR report from the long-term international observers. In order to really have a full-fledged assessment of what is happening, what has happened, and what needs to be corrected. But I think that in terms of the parliamentary elections, there is no time to be wasted. Because what Serbia does not need is another period of instability and crisis. Serbia has had a cycle of three elections in some three years. For any country to move on, it needs to have space to reform, adopt laws and space for proper discussion in the institutions, such as the parliament and I, therefore, think that it is important that formation of newly elected institutions begins as soon as possible.
EWB: What if Serbia authorities do not react? Do you think the EU should react? Until now, institutions have been silent, and there are allegations suggesting the involvement of the same institutions in the entire process of electoral irregularities, such as voter migration.
VB: I think the European Union is engaged. We engage on the ground through our mission and the diplomats. We engage here in the European Parliament. We had an exchange of views with the European Commission and the External Action Service. The European Parliament will adopt a resolution. We will follow up on this. There is an engagement.
But everybody understands that any ultimate and decisive solution has to be an institutional solution within Serbia.
EWB: But what if they don’t react? Can you imagine the progress of a country whose institutions do not respond to electoral fraud on the European path?
VB: Let us be honest. I’ve been in this job of the EP Standing Rapporteur since 2019 and Serbia has not made any major progress towards the European Union membership during this time. There have been some preliminary steps, some smaller steps, just one cluster has been opened. Beyond that there has been little movement.
This is why I’m saying that two things need to happen for progress. One, Serbia needs to have a credible and stable government and a parliament which can deliver on the important reforms: domestic reforms in the area of rule of law, democracy, media freedom, the fundamentals, but also structural reforms and institutional reforms. There is the new Growth Plan which has been offered by the European Union of up to 6 billion euros for the region of the Western Balkans from which Serbia can benefit greatly.
For that to happen, Serbia needs to have a reform plan and needs to have a reform agenda and needs to have institutions in place. Those institutions now have a fresh mandate based on the elections and they should begin to work, and they should have the space to work.
At the same time, and this is my second point, for progress and for those institutional solutions to be credible, Serbia needs to have full-fledged credibility of the electoral process and the electoral framework. This is why I’m saying the investigations which have begun, the court cases which have been filed, and the full fledged assessment, including the final OSCE/ODIHR report have to be the basis for a resolution of any problems, any allegations, any questions in relation to what happened on 17th of December, what happened in the run up to the 17th of December, and what has been happening since then. This is extremely important. I think everybody realises that across Brussels, in all the EU institutions.
And again, the institutional solutions to these questions have to be done within Serbia. If the institutions in their current state are not delivering, then they have to be reformed and changed.
I will give you just one example – Regulatory body for electronic media (REM). As an international observer, I was really disappointed when nobody from REM met with us when we discussed the campaign and the media situation in Serbia in the run up to elections. These regulatory bodies have to start working.
For that to happen, Serbia needs to start fully implementing also some of the new laws, including the media laws. You need to start making some changes in the way these institutions work in Serbia. Perhaps, based on what happened on the 17th of December, one needs to have a closer look at the whole framework, which guards the safety, security, and justice surrounding the electoral process.
This is important, but for this to happen we need to have a comprehensive assessment. We need to have a due process, which is followed up by the institutions in Serbia. What we can do in the European Union is to keep this on the agenda and to make very clear links between the fundamentals and the progress in the accession process.
EWB: The text of the EP Resolution will depend on the agreement between political groups. Will you accept if some groups recommend an international investigation? Do you think that an international investigation could help resolve the political crisis in Serbia?
VB: I think these were elections held in Serbia, so they have to be first and foremost investigated in terms of complaints inside Serbia and by Serbian authorities.
If there is any general understanding that the international community could help facilitate this process, let’s look at it. But for the moment, and I’ve always been saying this, the primary institutional solution has to be the one which is done and achieved within Serbia.
EWB: How do you comment on the anti-European rhetoric coming from state officials nad pro-regime media? Even Prime Minister Brnabić has accused some EU member states of organizing protests against Serbia.
VB: Serbia deserves better. Serbia deserves a European future and politicians who can deliver on this and can genuinely work on a European future. Serbian citizens deserve a European future and Serbia has to make a clear choice – does Serbia really want to work fully and consequently on its European future?
Anti-European rhetoric by anyone does not help because it does not win any friends or partners across the EU, in Brussels , in European institutions. Let me just say that everyone in Brussels, in Strasbourg, and across the EU capitals, reads, knows, and is well informed of what is going on, what is said by whom in Serbia. Whatever is said by any relevant politician is the news we get the same day, the same morning. We understand what is happening. We see the picture.
You win credible partners and friends only on the basis of credible commitment. That is based on deeds, but also on words. At the moment, what I have seen after the elections on the 17th of December indicates to me the extent to which Russia has continued and continues to play an excessively influential role in not just the Western Balkans, but in Serbia specifically.
If anybody has meddled in the electoral process, and what we have seen since the elections from outside of Serbia, it is Moscow, it is Russia. It is the playbook which we have seen on so many occasions by Vladimir Putin and his allies. This should be all the more reason for Serbia to work on its European future and to work on its sovereign and independent approach towards its European future.