Fiala: Czechia to try to shorten Serbia's path to EU membership

BELGRADE - Czech PM Petr Fiala, who is on an official visit to Serbia, said on Wednesday in Belgrade his country was providing long-term and permanent support to Serbia on its path to EU membership.

Addressing a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Palace of Serbia, Fiala said his message was that Western Balkan countries should not be left at the EU's door and that Serbia was taking all the necessary steps to become an EU member.

"The Czech Republic will be trying to shorten that path for Serbia as much as possible, and it will be supporting Serbia in becoming a member state as soon as possible," Fiala said.

He said he was pleased to have had an opportunity to speak with Vucic and PM Milos Vucevic and noted that the discussions had confirmed a deep friendship between the two countries.

He said Czech companies enjoyed a good reputation in Serbia, and expressed the hope there would be new opportunities for doing business in Serbia.

He said he was convinced there were new areas for future bilateral cooperation, including in telecommunications, defence and security.

"I was pleased to read that Czechia was the fourth-largest investor in Serbia in 2023, which confirms the good relations," Fiala said.

He said the two countries faced common challenges and should take advantage of the resources they had to be strategically independent.

He said that Czechia and Serbia had enormous lithium deposits and that his country wanted to use the resource that was available to it.

He added that his government had decided in favour of development of the nuclear energy sector in Czechia.

He said building a nuclear power plant was a reasonable solution.

"We are ready to share all our experiences related to nuclear power in case our Serbian friends need that," Fiala said.