The members of the European Parliament Committee had questions about the rule of law, judiciary reform and the National Assembly delegation’s stance on the freedom of the media and fighting corruption.

The MPs’ had different opinions on the freedom of the media, with the opposition saying that there is room for improvement, while the ruling majority believe that the many reports the opposition mentioned were based on unilateral data. Speaking of the rule of law from the Parliament’s viewpoint, they said that the National Assembly provides the legislative framework that directly contributes to the improvement of the rule of law, however, sometimes the implementation of these laws runs into difficulties. Still, the rule of law has improved, as evidenced by the fact that the overall crime rate had gone down by 9% last year and the instances of corruption detected in the second half of 2018 had doubled compared to the first half of the year, which does not mean that corruption had gone up, rather the police efficiency had been improved.

The officials also spoke about Serbia’s Euro-integration. McAllister said that the European Union cannot be complete without Serbia and since the stability of the continent hinges on stability in the Balkans, he hopes for a speedy accession of all six of the Western Balkans candidate countries.

The meeting was attended by the Chairperson and Deputy Chairman of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee Marija Obradovic and Marko Djurisic, as well as Committee member Aleksandar Markovic, Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Kosovo-Metohija Milovan Drecun and Goran Bogdanovic, as well as the Chairman and Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues Djordje Komlenski and Gordana Comic.