PrEUgovor Commentary on the Reform Agenda of Serbia in the "Fundamentals" Area
Coalition prEUgovor regularly monitors the state of affairs and advocates for substantial reforms in Cluster 1 (“Fundamentals”). In its commentary, it shares its impressions of the document - newly adopted Reform Agenda of the Republic of Serbia, in principle and in selected areas it monitors within the Fundamentals.
For 21 measures within the section on the Fundamentals, the Government of Serbia is requesting a total of slightly more than 370 million euros. The Reform Agenda contains measures with semi-annual deadlines from December 2024 to the end of 2027, and EU payments are expected to follow those deadlines upon a positive assessment of fulfillment.
In general, it should be noted that the process of developing the Reform Agenda during 2024 was not transparent and inclusive, but limited by the rules of confidential negotiations between the Government of Serbia and the European Commission. Although a certain number of civil society organizations were given the opportunity to comment on the draft document, the impression is that there was neither space nor time to really consider and consider those comments.
Although the areas included in the Reform Agenda are important and altogether well selected, the proposed solutions do not correspond to the scale of the problems in the given areas. Certain measures from the action plans for chapters 23 and 24 are only repeated with postponed deadlines after the original deadlines have been substantially exceeded. Precise indicators for monitoring implementation have not been defined for all measures. Some measures are vague or inadequately formulated, probably partly due to the English-Serbian translation. All this will make it difficult to implement the Reform Agenda and measure the achieved results.
The Coalition is hopeful that the Reform Agenda with accompanying funds will still encourage the necessary progress in key areas in Serbia. The Coalition will continue to monitor the situation in the “Fundamentals” area and report on findings, including the implementation of the Reform Agenda and Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24.
Read the full PrEUgovor Commentary on the Reform Agenda of Serbia in the “Fundamentals” HERE.
About prEUgovor
Coalition prEUgovor is a network of civil society organisations formed in order to monitor the implementation of policies relating to the accession negotiations between Serbia and the EU, with an emphasis on Chapters 23 and 24 of the Acquis. In doing so, the coalition aims to use the EU integration process to help accomplish substantial progress in the further democratisation of the Serbian society.
Members of the coalition are: ASTRA – Anti-Trafficking Action, Autonomous Women's Centre (AWC), Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Centre for Investigative Journalism in Serbia (CINS), Centre for Applied European Studies (CPES), Group 484 and Transparency Serbia (TS).
Follow prEUgovor activities on the official website, Facebook page and X account.
Watch a short video with a retrospective on a decade of prEUgovor’s work (English subtitles).
