Thijs Reuten, a Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Dutch Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, has called on Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and European Council President António Costa to address the issue of political arrests in Serbia.
Reuten specifically urged them to read a letter from the parents of activist Pavle Cicvarić, who is currently in detention in Serbia. “The EU is silent again while the Serbian government tightens its autocratic grip on society. Pavle Cicvarić is one of the young political prisoners. His parents are asking the EU to help secure his release and protect his fundamental rights,” Reuten wrote on social media platform X.
He further called on EU representatives to leverage their influence, stating, “Use your influence to ensure the release of political prisoners like Pavle. We must not allow another candidate country to slip even further away from us.”
This appeal follows an open letter sent by civil society activists and the parents of the detained Faculty of Political Sciences student, Pavle Cicvarić, to European Union officials. In their letter, they emphasized that the regime’s repression in Serbia is escalating, with political prisoners now including students, high schoolers, lawyers, prominent professors, and doctors. They expressed a lack of understanding regarding the absence of an adequate response from Europe.
