Serbia

Serbia has made some progress on e-government and e-citizens, but has largely stagnated or regressed on freedom of the press and judicial independence. While most public accountability instruments have been adopted and transparency of political parties finance works, politicization of the public sector and government favoritism in procurement have not diminished. Serbia lags behind the European average at competitiveness of public procurement. While its good popular demand for good governance and the EU context are advantages, they risk being offset by braindrain and the inability of the EU accession process to attack legal rents and the quality of regulation more directly.