This document analyses the 2016 European Commission's Country Report on Serbia.

Upon acceptance, the country report has been part of the public discourse for weeks, as the EU benchmarks represent the main mechanism against which -not only the government- but also the public at large measures the success of the government. All Kosovo key leaders have reacted after they received the country report, including Prime Minister Mustafa

Taken as a whole, the report was accepted with a positive tone and with a particular focus on the achievements by the government officials. On the other hand, civil society and other independent analysts pinpointed the challenges pertaining to the fundamentals first with a particular focus on the rule of law. Political unwillingness as a critical element to processing policy changes in rule of law and anti-corruption policy realms have been continuously highlighted by civil society.

This analysis is made within BENCHER (Benchmarking for EU reforms – how effective?) project.