site.btaNew Serbian Electronic Media Council to Be Elected by July

A new Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) in Serbia is expected to be elected by mid-July, according to Serbian media reports. Speaking to Tanjug, REM spokesperson Olivera Zekic noted that "the procedure is complex, so it is realistic to expect everything to be completed in the first half of July and the new REM Council to be constituted".

Ana Brnabic, Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, told public broadcaster RTS that the parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information had received 45 nominations from 177 organizations competing for the nine seats on the REM Council. She emphasized that the election process is free from political interference. "Unfortunately, there will always be accusations of political pressure, because someone will always want to politicize the situation in Serbia or delay its European integration – even while claiming to be pro-European. Every success on our EU path is seen by some not as a success for Serbia, but as a victory for [President] Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party. That, in my opinion, is the fundamental problem," Brnabic added.

The new competition for REM Council members started on May 8.

On April 28, Serbia’s parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information decided to initiate a new nomination procedure for REM Council members, after previously annulling the old competition. This move fulfilled the demand of protesting students in Serbia for a new competition, one of the key reasons behind the 14-day blockade of RTS.

The Committee’s decision to restart the procedure came at the proposal of a group of opposition MPs, who formalized the students’ demand for a new REM Council competition. The students made their demand known with a surprise action on April 14, when they blockaded the RTS buildings at 10 Takovska Str. in Belgrade and the RTS studio complex at the Kosutnjak park for two weeks. RTS continued broadcasting but altered its programming and repeatedly condemned the blockade, calling it "illegal".

The previous competition for REM Council members failed months ago after NGOs and opposition representatives in Serbia revealed that the candidates did not meet legal requirements.

The announcement of the new competition came just hours after the European Parliament, for the first time since the protests began in Serbia, adopted a resolution addressing the political crisis in the country. The resolution confirmed that the students’ demands aligned with EU-expected reforms. The text emphasized the need to ensure the independence of key institutions, including REM, and called for full implementation of electoral reforms through a transparent and inclusive process, with sufficient lead time before any future elections.