Amnesty International is presenting this submission to the European Commission ahead of the preparation of its 2025 Enlargement Package. It details Amnesty International’s human rights concerns and outlines key recommendations that the EU should prioritize in the framework of Serbia’s EU accession process as well as any other ongoing engagement with the authorities.
The past year has seen several major waves of protests, with each triggering an increasingly harsher government response. Over the past six months, protests and student blockades have gripped Serbia and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life across the country. The protest movement’s demands are centered around calls to end corrupt practices and guarantee full accountability for the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, which killed 16 people in November 2024. Rather than engaging with these legitimate demands, the authorities chose to respond by doubling down on repressive measures, targeting the protest movement and civil society groups. Indeed, over the past year, the challenges facing protesters, civil society activists, human rights defenders and independent journalists in Serbia has reached a critical point with government repression taking the form of arbitrary arrests, serious and unfounded criminal charges against protesters, the unlawful use of invasive spyware, expulsions and vicious smear campaigns against civil society actors.
The demands that have driven protesters to take to the streets are closely aligned with the reforms Serbia is expected to deliver on, as part of its path to EU membership. However, the absence of a robust and vocal EU response to the government’s longstanding backsliding on human rights and the perceived sidelining of these concerns in favour of other stakes, has further increased Serbian civil society’s sense of isolation and undermined the EU’s reputation among citizens in Serbia. These protests underline the importance of prioritizing human rights in the EU’s enlargement process, and its key role in responding to the growing risks and tensions the EU faces in its neighborhood.
Efforts to promote fundamental rights and the rule of law should be at the forefront of Serbia’s EU accession process. The EU and its member states should ensure that their engagement with the Serbian authorities as well as the technical and financial support foreseen within the framework of Serbia’s EU accession process are used more effectively to foster concrete human rights and rule of law progress and to ensure the meaningful involvement of Serbia’s civil society in the reform process.
More specifically, the EU should ensure that achieving tangible progress on human rights – in both law and practice – is at the center of any decisions to open new negotiation clusters with Serbia and to disbursing EU funding under IPA III and the Growth and Reform Facility. Further EU funding should also be directed to promoting civil society space and supporting these actors in their crucial work, particularly against the backdrop of the US funding withdrawal. As part of its efforts to promote civil society space, the EU should insist on the meaningful involvement of civil society in the elaboration of human rights benchmarks linked to EU funding and in the monitoring and tracking of Serbia’s delivery on these commitments.
This briefing covers the following key issues which the EU should address in the framework of Serbia’s EU accession process and other ongoing engagement with the authorities:
- Freedom of assembly and association
- Arbitrary arrests and unfounded charges targeting protesters
- Arbitrary seizure of telephones and computers of activists and protesters
- Unlawful use of sonic weapon during a protest
- Attacks on civil society
- Expulsion and publishing of personal data of activists and foreign citizens
- Unlawful use of invasive spyware and digital forensic technology
- Digital surveillance campaign targeting civil society
- Accountability and due diligence
- Attacks using NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware
- Inadequate legal framework and practice regulating digital surveillance
- Economic, social and cultural rights: Social Card Law