Tanja Fajon, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Mr President, first of all, I congratulate rapporteur McAllister for a balanced report and good cooperation. Since the beginning of the negotiations with the European Union, Serbia has certainly achieved good progress. Negotiation chapters are being opened and closed and just yesterday, as we heard, Commissioner Hahn has announced the opening of new chapters later this month.

On paper and in the report in front of us, the development in Serbia seems pretty much business as usual. But what I hear when I talk to Serbian citizens shows the contrary. Young Serbs tell me that it is almost impossible to get a job without a party membership card or paying a certain amount of the money to a party official, and NGO reports show continuous decline in the rule of law and unresolved cases such as Savamala prove this in practice.

Media representatives are threatened, investigative journalists are turned away and some of them are even physically attacked. I ask myself, and you: is this the Serbia which we want as part of our European family? Is this what we want to achieve with negotiating chapters 23 and 24? I am afraid not. Serbia should do much more to reach our European standards of democracy, rule of law and the respect for human rights.

I am sure that if we continue to practice constructive criticism and turn a blind eye to the real state of play, we will once again prove that we are doing something wrong. As an important player in the region, I wish for Serbia to develop into a prosperous, economically and socially stable country where democracy is a way of living not a word on paper, where rules, as opposed to the interests of those who hold power in their hands, prevail. This is the Serbia we want to help and support on its path to our European family.