Serbia is not Robert Mugabe
By Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 9 May 2007 - George Monbiot’s commentary in yesterday’s Guardian, in which he expressed his indignation about Serbia taking up the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe, is a proof that high moral ground is not the best place for shooting from the hip.

His criticism is brimming with self-righteous eloquence, but he is missing the point. The issue is not the Serbian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, but whether Serbia should be allowed to be a member of the Council of Europe at all. The answer to that question is bit more complicated than it would appear from his text.

Serbia and Montenegro became members of the Council of Europe in April 2003, only a month after the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. The decision was based on merit, but it was clearly also meant as a sign of support and solidarity to the Serbian people, whose hopes born out of the departure of Milosevic had been gradually replaced by frustration and ultimately shock following the murder of their Prime Minister. The record of the Serbian membership in the past three years has not been brilliant, but there has been steady progress in most areas. Clearly, the most important unfulfilled obligation is the extradition of Mladic. We are disappointed and impatient, and we have used every opportunity to make it clear to the Serbian authorities. Whether this should be enough to throw Serbia out of the organisation is another matter.

According to George Monbiot, the way to know the value of an institution is to imagine what the world would be like if it did not exist. I agree so let us try to imagine what would have happened to Serbia and its citizens.

First, all the conventions Serbia has signed and ratified would no longer apply. These include the European Social Charter, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Convention against Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. All our assistance programmes helping the Serbian authorities to modernise the functioning of the judiciary and other state institutions for the benefit of their citizens would be terminated. Finally, the people living in Serbia would no longer be able to bring any cases against their government to the European Court of Human Rights.

All this may not mean much to George Monbiot, but it makes a huge difference to everyone living in Serbia – especially those who hope for a better future rather than a recycled version of the past. They may be frustrated, disillusioned and even desperate, but they are still in majority and they need our help.

George Monbiot is not the first to criticise Serbian membership in the Council of Europe. I remember Vojislav Seselj saying more or less the same. His arguments may have been different, but the consequences for the people of Serbia would have been the same.