Minister Dacic meets with co-rapporteur of PACE Monitoring Committee

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic met today with Axel Schäfer, co-rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the preparation of a report on Serbia’s progress in fulfilling its obligations and commitments stemming from its membership in the Council of Europe.

It was pointed out that the Republic of Serbia, as an active member of the Council of Europe, was persistent in applying the value framework and standards of this organization. In this context, bearing in mind the progress our country has achieved and the fact that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe abolished the monitoring of our country back in 2015, we expect that the rapporteurs will recognize this in their report after the visit and recommend that Serbia moves from the phase of regular monitoring into the phase of the so-called post-monitoring dialogue.

We expect that the upcoming PACE monitoring report will acknowledge the efforts and results achieved in the reform process.

Minister Dacic stated that the Republic of Serbia was committed to cooperation with the Council of Europe, as the oldest pan-European organization and all its independent institutions, on the basis of respect for the organization’s values and normative framework.

Minister Dacic briefly informed his interlocutor about the complex situation in Kosovo and Metohija, and underlined that Serbia's goal was to de-escalate the situation on the ground, which the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina did not want at the moment.