Serbia, the Balkans and the European Union

Transcript Serbia, the Balkans and the European Union Ana Brnabić Prime Minister, Republic of Serbia Chair: Dr Robin Niblett CMG Director, Chatham House 18 June 2019 The views expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the speaker(s) and participants, and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chatham House, its staff, associates or Council. Chatham House is independent and owes no allegiance to any government or to any political body. It does not take institutional positions on policy issues. This document is issued on the understanding that if any extract is used, the author(s)/speaker(s) and Chatham House should be credited, preferably with the date of the publication or details of the event. Where this document refers to or reports statements made by speakers at an event, every effort has been made to provide a fair representation of their views and opinions. The published text of speeches and presentations may differ from delivery. © The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2019. 10 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LE T +44 (0)20 7957 5700 F +44 (0)20 7957 5710 www.chathamhouse.org Patron: Her Majesty The Queen Chairman: Stuart Popham QC Director: Dr Robin Niblett Charity Registration Number: 208223 2 Serbia, the Balkans and the European Union Dr Robin Niblett CMG So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to – somebody’s put this up here, I suppose this is okay. Welcome to Chatham House. I’m Robin Niblett, the Director of the institute. My pleasure to welcome you all here today. We are delighted to have this conversation on Serbia, the Balkans and the European Union. I suspect that’s one of those catch-all titles to allow both our speaker and you the opportunity to range widely, and, obviously, I think an opportunity for Chatham House to talk about Serbia. One of the most significant pivotal, I think, countries, in terms of Europe’s future, in the context of a stable Balkans, in the context of a part of the world that we hope will be fully integrated into European institutions and structures over time, but, obviously, which comes from a pained recent history, and still a very complex environment today. We were just discussing the process of EU accession, and that is always a painful process, for any acceding member, and for departing members, but it is especially complex now. So, in that context, I’m delighted to be hosting Ana Brnabić, the Prime Minister of Serbia, to Chatham House, a position she’s held for pretty much exactly two years, after Aleksandr Vučić gave that position and became President of Serbia. And she brings to this role less, if I’m right in saying this, Ana, less of a political experience and much more somebody who brings experience in business and in the private sector, in infrastructure investment, all critical areas for Serbia’s development, and which were reflected in her role in the Government when she was Minister for Public Administration. And any of you who look through the EU’s list of requirements for closing those chapters, the dimensions of the administration of its member states, like Serbia, is absolutely central to that. So, we’ll have an opportunity to discuss with her after her remarks, as I said, developments in Serbia, its relationships more broadly with the EU and in the region, and if we want to go more broadly, we will see where we take it, but for the moment, Prime Minister, welcome to Chatham House. As I said, we’re very pleased to have this opportunity and look forward to your remarks. Thank you [applause]. Ana Brnabić Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure for me to be here today, and to actually cover some of the issues under this very general title of Serbia and the EU and the Balkans. Actually, the title captures the two of our key priorities, in terms of foreign policy. One, an absolute key strategic focus is the EU accession of Serbia, Serbia eventually becoming the member of the European Union, and the second one is regional stability, better connected, better integrated region. Also, more predictable region, I would say, as well. So, these are the two key areas, the two – the key focus of our foreign policy, and I will try to actually cover some general issues, perhaps, you know, questions that I found were some of the questions that, throughout these past two years, since I became the Prime Minister, people usually ask me about – and with regards to our EU accession, and then allow for more time for questions, which I think is generally something that is much more useful to people, and more interesting. So, in terms of, you know, the first question that people usually ask me, and especially when I’m here in Britain, is why EU? You know, EU is facing its own internal challenges. Britain is leaving. You know, some people feel that, you know, EU is going through such a difficult challenges that it’s almost falling apart, and what will be the future of the Union, and at a time that all of these things are going on, why is Serbia wanting to join the European Union? And for that matter, I think why is Balkans, or as we – you know, the new term is ‘Western Balkans’, why do we all want to join the EU? And I think that, really, the most straightforward answer, for me, is that, for me, the European Union is first and foremost a peace project, and I think many, many people in Europe have actually forgot about that, and I think that, you know, thanks to the European Union, actually, Europe had the longest peace thus far. And I think that people actually took peace for granted, or take peace for granted, and forgot about that, that EU was a 3 Serbia, the Balkans and the European Union peace project, and started talking more and focusing more about, you know, the economic side of it, the labour, the free movement of labour, goods, services, competitiveness, rather than peace, and, for me, Europe, if you ask me today, for me, Europe will always be a successful project because of that peace. And so, I think that the, you know, the – if you think of the EU as the peace project, then you think that project is not complete without Balkans, the entire Balkans being part of the EU. And I think this is exactly the biggest quality that EU accession will take, or bring to the Balkans, and that’s peace. Peace that is much, much needed, peace and stability much needed for the Balkans. So, that, really, is my first answer. Obviously, I also feel that EU is, again, before the economy, is the – and the Single Market, is also a family of nations with shared values, and I feel that Serbia shares those values, and that our natural place is in the EU, in the European family of nations, and then, lastly, obviously, you know, it’s the economy, it’s the larger market. You know, we also, in that respect, basically, entirely, you know, our place, also, is entirely in the EU. More than 70% of our investments, FDI inflow, is from the EU, from the EU member countries. Approximately 70% of our trade is with the EU member countries. So, our exports are into the EU. So, economically, that is where it belongs. So, to me, there is no questions asked, you know, politically. You know, I would, you know – we do not have plan B, as some people might think, and I’m sure that question will come up, or some of the Western Balkans’ leaders, kind of, say, almost trying to blackmail the EU, “Unless you tell us the exact date when we will join, we’ll turn and join this or that, or, you know, our foreign policy will change.” That’s not the case with Serbia. As the Prime Minister, I can say that. You know, we do not have plan B. European accession is our strategic focus, it is our strategic goal, and regardless of who’s in the Government now, who’s in the ruling coalition, if you look at the Serbian Parliament, more than 80% of MPs in the Parliament come from political parties or political groups that are pro-EU, and that has been one thing that has been stable run throughout all of the governments since the changes in 2000, and that’s been the fact that all were pro-EU. Now, the EU, for some of you that don’t know, the EU accession process is quite administrative. I think they’re, kind of, getting countries used to the administration in Brussels, in terms of, you know, there’s these 35 chapters and you almost go through, if it was a videogame, you go through the chapters of the exercise of opening and closing the chapters, and you have to fulfil some standards to open chapters, and then fulfil additional standards to close the chapters, and, basically, you know, I think that the champion is one who fulfils all of the 35 levels, as soon as possible, and joins the EU. But it’s fairly administrative. So, you know, not even citizens of Serbia understand what are the chapters all about. So, in my view, they’re basically – they’re, all of the 35 chapters, apart from Chapter 35, which is – which was – which is the easiest for all other accession countries, because Chapter 35 is other issues.

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