EU warns Serbia: “Aligning with Russia contrary to stated goal of membership”

Brussels – Either Russia or the European Union. One excludes the other, and Serbia needs to clarify its intentions for its present and even more so for its future. The European Commission does not like Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin’s trip to Russia and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin and warns that choices that are too pro-Russian could close the doors of the EU for Belgrade, effectively blocking the accession process. 

“Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia violates the United Nations statute and international law on which the European Union is founded, and aligning with Russia is not compatible with the principles of the EU and contrary to what EU membership requires,” makes clear Peter Stano, spokesman for the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. The institutional mission conducted by Vulin “runs counter to the stated objective of EU membership,” and from Brussels comes an explicit call to “refrain from strengthening ties with Russia.” 

However, the demand is a threat. The incompatibility of Belgrade’s policies with EU values and acquis means that the EU must reconsider the accession process, which means threatening to suspend it as the EU executive has begun to do with Georgia. Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009 and, in March 2012, obtained candidate country status. Since then, there has been more than a decade of continuous work, complicated by the Kosovo issue and the normalization of relations between the two entities (Kosovo continues to be unrecognized as an independent and sovereign state by all 27), but still never challenged as it is today.