First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic participated at the “Future of the Berlin Process” panel, held in London today, within the framework of the Berlin Process Western Balkans Summit.
Apart from Minister Dacic the panellists also included Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia and Montenegro.
In his introductory remarks, the Head of Serbian diplomacy commended a very good organization of the London Summit and pointed out that, in the last four years, the “Berlin Process” had asserted a huge potential for cooperation in this format as well as within the framework of the “Western Balkan Six”.
The rule of law, media freedom, participation of civil society in different processes, particularly those in Europe, were the topics of today’s panel discussion.
Answering questions from the audience, Minister Dacic assessed that, unfortunately, it was not all about the implementation of reforms, which Serbia had been carrying out rather successfully, but about the other existing impediments that affected the slowdown of the processes in the region, including the European integration process.
” Each country in the region has its own agenda and pace of the reform process, seeking to involve all stakeholders in society as much as possible, including the civil society, being its big part”, the Head of Serbian diplomacy emphasized.
Minister Dacic underlined that the past could not be changed, but the future could be made better for all of us.
“Overcoming of political problems in the region will enable the economy and trade as well as the idea of the Regional Economic Area to bear fruit because that is the right course to be followed”, he underscored.
Minister Dacic recalled that the media were free to write and pose questions about whatever they were interested in, but that the governments were not to tell them what they should or should not write about.