State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nemanja Stevanović participated to the 129th Session of the Committee of Ministers in Helsinki, from 16 to 17 May 2019. More than thirty ministers of foreign affairs attended the Session, as well.

During the Ministerial Session, the European countries marked 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe, the organization founded to promote democracy, human rights and rule of law. In that context, the ministers adopted the Declaration whose goal is to help resolving the current CoE crisis.

In his statement, State Secretary Nemanja Stevanović was talking about the importance that Serbia attaches to the Council of Europe and its three pillars. He highlighted the improvement that Serbia had made and underlined Serbia’s preparedness to continue its successful cooperation with CoE. He informed the Committee of Ministers on the efforts that the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić is putting to maintain good relations with neighbours in the region. Consequently, these efforts produced positive results. Nevertheless, he stated that the dialogue with Priština is jeopardized because Priština undermines it and lacks truthful readiness for dialogue and cooperation.

Finland transferred the six month presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE to France.