BRUSSELS – The EPP Presidency stated today that it had tasked EPP Secretary General Dolors Montserrat and EPP Vice-President Kostis Hatzidakis to lead an EPP internal scrutiny process as regards the role of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) within the EPP.
According to the statement, the EPP Presidency will be in close contact with all stakeholders, including the SNS leadership.
“This is not an official EPP statutory suspension nor exclusion process, but a thorough and swift internal investigation with open-ended results”, the statement reads.
Earlier this month, EPP President Manfred Weber announced in Strasbourg that the future of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) within the European People’s Party (EPP) would be the subject of scrutiny.
Addressing the media, Weber stated that the EPP was carefully following the situation and developments in Serbia, adding that the group “was not blind to the latest events and images from Serbia”.
For the past ten months, Serbia has been experiencing student-led protests demanding accountability for the Novi Sad deadly train station collapse. The police have been frequently criticised for excessive use of force in recent weeks.
The SNS has been an associate member of the EPP since 2016, and the largest European party family has maintained good cooperation with the ruling party since then, despite the warnings of some experts that it legitimises the undemocratic practices of the SNS.
