Address by President Mattarella to the National Assembly of Serbia

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, Mr Prime Minister, Messrs Ministers and representatives of the Diplomatic Corps,

I would like to first of all express my feeling of gratitude for having invited me to address you.

I have the honour of being the first President of the Italian Republic to speak before this National Assembly, which represents the fulcrum of Serbia's democratic life.

It is a Country that many years ago undertook, with determination and courage, a strenuous and complex road, with the firm intention of choosing its future, determined to reconquer the place that history designated it to within Europe.

The opportunity given me holds a particular importance for me because it enables me to reaffirm before you the strength of the bonds that unite Serbia and Italy, in the place that symbolises national unity and that expresses the many souls of a Country with so much history, young, dynamic and projected into the future.

Our peoples, our Countries, are above all friends and they will be able to rely on this friendship in building their future together, in the wake of a revived sharing of goals and ideals.

The future of Serbia, just like the future of Italy, is in Europe, to which they both belong because of their history, culture and values.

These are the reasons why I asked to come to Belgrade during the first months of my mandate and to pay my first visit to a candidate Country for accession to the European Union.

I felt it was necessary to advocate the need, fully shared by the Italian government, to emphasise the attentive and staunch support of our Country - in all its articulations: institutional, political, economic and cultural - for the most deeply felt request of the Serbian people.

In a period of history in which the attention of Europe and of the world is focused on serious crises and emergencies on the eastern borders of the Union and in the Mediterranean area, I believe we should focus our attention on the yet unsettled equilibrium in the region of the Balkans and on the demanding process of reform, growth and the full development of democracy that Serbia is implementing.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament,
The completion of the European Union, with the full integration of the Balkans, certainly constitutes our goal.
However, we cannot hide that the difficulties hampering the integration process are real and complex, magnified by a persisting economic and financial crisis.

Nonetheless they are not unsurmountable and must be overcome.

They cannot and must not justify backtracking or changes of course, but on the contrary, they impose courageous and forward-looking policies like the ones on which Belgrade has based its actions during recent years and, even more resolutely, during the past few months.

For as strenuous as the process might now appear, the decisions taken at Copenhagen constitute the best guarantee for accession on equal terms to a Union of peer Countries.

The lucid pragmatism and the clear strategic vision that characterise the decision of Serbia and other Countries of the region to join Europe can and must represent, for all the peoples of Europe, a strong message of confidence in the future, at a time fraught with difficulties.

Europe's aspiration, which I here feel present and strong, reminds us that the value of the European Union does not stem from its economic dimension but mainly from being, first and foremost, a Union of free peoples and democratic States.

Liberty, peace and democracy are the foundations on which rests the future of our continent. Unfortunately these values are now put at risk by dramatic events which we never imagined we would witness.

Serbia, at a time in which it would have been easy to heed the call of Euroscepticism and anachronistic nationalisms, succeeded to give absolute priority to its own European course, thanks to a far-reaching political evolution.

The complex reforms implemented, also at the cost of considerable hardships for the Serbian people, and the opening of a historic Dialogue to normalise relations with Priština, are the blatant and concrete evidence thereof.
These efforts, aimed at re-establishing the deep ties uniting Serbia to Europe, were fully endorsed by the formal opening of accession negotiations at the beginning of 2014.

I have no doubt about the fact that Belgrade will be capable of meeting expectations and that a positive reply from Europe will not be long in coming.

We look on with confidence at the tenacity and conviction with which Serbia is pursuing its European goal, reviving the momentum of legislative reforms and establishing ever-closer and fruitful relations with all the Countries in the region.

On the other hand, I confide that positive considerations will prevail as to the capabilities and potential of this Country, its Institutions and its people: an expectation strongly held by Italy and that underlies the solidarity and firm support assured to Belgrade and the region on their path towards integration.

The strategic partnership between our two Countries, which takes shape as an articulate cooperation in key sectors of activity, such as fighting corruption and crime, and the commitment to facilitate dialogue between Belgrade and the Countries of the region, is a concrete confirmation thereof.

We are convinced that, in line with what happened in other European regions, the integration of Serbia and of the other Countries of the region depends, to a significant extent, on their capacity to overcome old and recent divisions in order to build the future of the region, extinguishing hotbeds of tension smouldering beneath the ashes of a difficult past still alive in the memory of many.

It is on the basis of this conviction that we promoted the trilateral "Friends of Serbia" initiative between Rome, Belgrade and Tirana. Furthermore, we have been making a convinced contribution to the "historical" forums of dialogue, especially the Central European Initiative and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative which - under our impulse - have led to the adoption of the European Strategy for the region.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament,

Serbia's road to Europe will be demanding but it is the way that leads to progress. It is an important road for all of Europe.

It is certainly not Italy's intention to fuel false expectations.

Aware of the time limits recently mentioned by the Commission, we must act to stop it from becoming a prolonged stalemate, producing disaffection with Europe among Accession Countries and jeopardising effective integration perspectives. This action must be timely and, to the extent possible, prompt in order to have truly beneficial effects and be able to intercept the turning points of history.

I am certain that Serbia will be able to look at the upcoming years as an opportunity to consolidate its achievements and add momentum to the reform process that it so successfully initiated. Starting from the rule of law and the administration of justice, which constitute the cornerstones of any sound democratic system and are the areas on which European Union Institutions focus most attention.
I assure you that the support of Italy which, more than any other, has at heart the presence of Serbia within the European family, will not come short.

Our Country believes that strengthening the European Union and crowing the dream of the "Founding Fathers" of a Political Union, are closely interwoven with the completion of the integration process of the Western Balkans.
This will be the only way of definitively formalising the end of a "historic delay", thus enabling the reunification of a continent under conditions of stability and democracy for all its peoples.

Back in 1941, Altiero Spinelli, one of the Founding Fathers of the European Union, wrote on the need to build the unity of Europe: "The road ahead is neither easy nor safe, but must be pursued and it will be."

Today it is Serbia's turn to take the road indicated by Spinelli and Italy is ready to accompany it along the way.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament,
Yesterday I participated in a simple and solemn ceremony in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Italy's entry in World War I. Since then Europe has been swept over by conflicts, the last of which precisely in the region of the Balkans. We are still concerned by the strong tensions on the eastern borders of the Union and over relations with a Country of great relevance for our future like the Russian Federation.
Today the continent's stability and peace are threatened by serious crises at its southern borders, which have their origin in Africa and in the Middle East.
These issues and concerns see Serbia and Italy united, as they both yearn for a stable international relations system.
Europe must successfully meet these challenges but it will be able to do so only if it is capable of showing cohesion, uniformity of intents and solidarity.

Today Serbia is an integral part of this collective effort.
Serbia, in the eye of the International Community, has now become a Country exporting peace and stability. This is proven, among other things, by the participation of numerous Serbian troops in international peace missions and by having assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe at a time in which the Organisation is called upon to play a crucial role in re-establishing conditions of security and peace in Ukraine.

Belgrade is acting with the caution and balance of a mature Country, fully aware of its international responsibilities.

We are grateful for this.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament,

The roots of our relationship lie deep in centuries of history.
Serbia gave birth to seventeen Roman emperors, the most outstanding of whom is the figure of Constantine. The presence of Rome in these lands continues today to bear witness to the vestige of the Empire's glorious cities, and Belgrade amongst them, which already then was an important crossroads in Europe.

Since then, our histories have repeatedly crossed.

In 1697 the skill and bravery of Eugene of Savoy were decisive in stopping the encroaching Ottoman army at the gates of Senta, in present-day Vojvodina.

Many were the exchanges with the pro-independence causes in the Balkans during the 19th Century; suffice it to recall the creation of the United Serbian Youth in 1866 in the wake of Mazzini's Young Italy movement.

Also in the darkest times of European history, Serbia and Italy wrote pages full of heroic deeds, brotherhood and closeness that will always remain etched in the collective memory of our two Countries.

I am thinking of the thousands of Serbs fleeing the advance of the army of the Central Powers between the end of 1915 and the beginning of 1916 who found safety and refuge on Italian Navy vessels.

Our Countries' Armed Forces have been lined up, side by side, in numerous peace-keeping missions like UNIFIL, just to mention the largest, where the presence of 177 Serbian troops represents a valuable and appreciated contribution to the stability of Lebanon.

Business and culture are the pillars on which our friendship rests today, continuously instilling our relations with new lymph.

Our companies contribute to implementing a model for the future, in Serbia as in Italy. They present a business model capable of combining the logic of profit with that of social investment, job creation and training. Our companies confide in the lively energies of your youth, in the certainty of an economic and legal model that facilitates entrepreneurial activities but, above all, they invest in the future of your Country.

Our economic ties are compounded with and magnified by a strong cultural affinity, which is deeply felt by the large number of young people who speak Italian and study in our universities.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament,

Allow me, on the 40th anniversary of his death, to conclude my address with a quotation from Ivo Andric, the winner of the 1961Nobel Prize in Literature: "Everywhere in the world, where my thoughts roam or linger, they find loyal and busy bridges, as Man's eternal and yet unfulfilled wish to connect, pacify and unite all that appears before our souls, our eyes, our feet, in order to overcome divisions, contrasts, estrangements."

This is the future to which the people of Serbia, the Balkans and of all of Europe aspire. This is certainly so for the Italian people.

Here, where the Danube and Sava rivers meet, merge the forcefulness of a millennium-old history, but also the currents of the future. We, in Italy, are certain that Belgrade will be able to wade through them.

On the other side of the Adriatic which, now more than ever, no longer separates but unites our Countries in a shared yearning for peace, liberty and progress, Italy will stand by your side, in deep-felt and sincere friendship.