EU Commission decides partial temporary financial sanctions on Serbia awaiting improvement of controversial laws in judiciary

The European Commission (EC) announced that it is already withholding further disbursement - second tranche - of loans and grants to Serbia from EU’s new fund for the Western Balkans countries, because of several controversial judiciary laws adopted by the parliament controlled by the ruling party of the authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic in January. The EC spokesperson Guillaume Mercier told dtt-net.com that the EU executive body on top of its own "assessment whether Serbia still meets the conditions for payments under the EU's financial instruments," as announced by the Commissioner Marta Kos earlier this week, is also waiting for the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission opinion on the disputed laws and then for Serbia parliament to make changes to the laws as would be suggested by the latter before it can resume sending money to Serbia government from the Growth Facility fund.