New Serbia Cabinet to push EU bid

BELGRADE - Agence France-Presse

Vucic said the government should work hard to become an EU member. AFP Photo

Serbia’s new center-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was sworn in on April 27, expected to push the country’s EU membership bid and urgently tackle the ailing economy.

Vucic, leader of the center-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), was given a mandate after a landslide victory in March elections called after Serbia began EU membership talks in the wake of a landmark accord with breakaway Kosovo last year.

Out of 228 deputies present at the SNS-dominated parliament, 198 MPs voted for Vucic’s cabinet, 23 were against it and seven abstained. “I am ready to undertake the implementation of reforms as I am convinced that if things remain the same, the consequences will be catastrophic,” Vucic told parliament.

In his three-hour speech before the vote, Vucic said the priority of his 19-member cabinet would be the reform of Serbia’s outdated economy, the reduction of the budget deficit and moves to accelerate Belgrade’s bid to join the European Union. “The EU is not an ideal union, but it is the best union of the states that exists nowadays and we belong there,” Vucic said.