On 31 October, Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, met with Tanja Miščević, Minister for European Integration of Serbia, on the sidelines of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the Peace Formula in Montreal, Canada.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed her gratitude to her Serbian counterpart for participating in the Conference at the head of her country’s delegation.

“I am very pleased to see you and your delegation here in Montreal today at this very important conference for our country. This is a powerful and important signal,” Olha Stefanishyna said.

In particular, she informed Tanja Miščević about the situation of Ukrainian children illegally taken to russia during the full-scale aggression, as well as the situation of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians held by russia. The Deputy Prime Minister expressed hope that Serbia would support and assist Ukraine in returning all Ukrainians who are being held by russia in horrific conditions, subjected to torture and abuse.

The Serbian Minister assured of her support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and her country’s readiness to provide humanitarian assistance.

The parties also discussed the European Union’s 2024 Enlargement Package, which was published by the European Commission the day before. Thus, in its report, the Commission confirmed that Serbia has met the benchmarks for the opening of Cluster 3, Competitiveness and Inclusive Development.

Olha Stefanishyna and Tanja Miščević assessed the progress made by both countries during the year on the European integration path and stressed the importance of a results-based approach in assessing each country’s achievements in the EU accession process.

The parties stressed that delaying the process of EU enlargement is harmful and may have a negative impact on the support and understanding of the European integration process by citizens.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the importance of all the enlargement countries working together on transformation processes, while at the same time establishing an exchange of experience and expertise along the way.

“Ukraine has an ambitious agenda for the beginning of 2025. We would be happy to have regular cooperation with the Western Balkan states, in particular Serbia. Both of our countries have a very broad institutional base and a really great potential for a very dynamic progression towards EU accession. And I think our exchange of experience and expertise will be useful,” Olha Stefanishyna said.

She also expressed hope that the new European Commission will make enlargement its priority and that this process will be intensified for all enlargement countries.

The meeting also welcomed the holding of an event in Belgrade, Serbia, to exchange experience between EU candidate countries. Ukraine was represented by Oleksandr Ilkov, Director General of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. The next meeting of the candidate countries’ negotiators is scheduled for the second half of November 2024 in Chisinau, Moldova.