Setbacks on rights and “obvious anti-EU narrative”: Serbia joins ranks of “bad” candidates for accession

Brussels – Alongside the usual suspects, Turkey and Georgia, Serbia also enters by right among the “bad” EU candidate countries. The annual report on Enlargement published today (4 November) by the European Commission leaves no room for interpretation: if not yet compromised, Belgrade’s decade-long path to the 12-star club has been bogged down by Aleksandar Vučić‘s increasingly authoritarian management of the state apparatus, the violent repression of student protests, and the president’s brazen winks towards Moscow. 

The assessment from Brussels is decidedly harsh, from beginning to end. “There is a evident anti-EU narrative not only in the Serbian media, but also used by political office holders, even at the highest levels,” begins the report, calling on the national authorities to “take much more responsibility for proactive and more objective communication about Serbia’s EU accession process and the EU itself, as well as for countering disinformation and manipulation of information.” This concept was reiterated by Marta Kos, Commissioner for Enlargement, who presented the report’s findings to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in the morning: “Serbia should avoid anti-EU rhetoric or against members of the European Parliament,” Kos intimated.

It is not just a matter of “biting the hand that feeds you”: there is a “judicial and fundamental rights impasse” and even “a shift in freedom of expression”, the Commissioner noted. Eleven years after the start of accession negotiations, Serbia has stopped making progress, and the closure of 22 negotiating chapters out of a total of 35 is now further away than it was then. 

“No progress” in the functioning of the judiciary, “an increasingly difficult environment” for the action of NGOs and civil society, violence against protesters that has “intensified” as the protests have continued, and “excessive use of force” by the police, “a regression” with regard to freedom of expression and a “considerably worsened information environment”. After months of hesitant statements by the top EU leaders, who did not dump Vučić even in the face of the massive demonstrations triggered by the accident at the Novi Sad railway station that one year ago cost 16 people their lives, the European Commission has left all ambiguity aside in its Enlargement Report.

The other disastrous chapter—which brings Serbia closer to Georgia and Turkey—is Belgrade’s evident disalignment with EU foreign policy. “Some of Serbia’s actions and statements have been at odds with key positions” in Brussels, “in particular regarding the Russian Federation,” the report notes. In addition to the intensification of high-level bilateral contacts with Russia—the Commission has not forgotten Vučić’s participation in the 9 May military parade in Moscow on the occasion of Victory Day—the report points to “recurring anti-Western narratives” that raise “further questions about Serbia’s strategic direction.”

A vale of tears, a stab in the back, or perhaps in the chest, for Vučić, a step forward for the European socialist family, according to which “finally the European Commission seems to be aware of the seriousness of the situation in Serbia.” 

A situation that, from the point of view of the accession process, is still in danger of plunging into a “stalemate”, a “deadlock”, as Brussels has defined those concerning Turkey and Georgia, the other two major sufferers among the ten candidate countries for EU membership. As for Ankara, “serious concerns about the continuing deterioration of democratic standards, the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and respect for fundamental rights have not been addressed,” while Tbilisi, “instead of demonstrating its commitment to further EU integration and pursuing the necessary reforms,” has “further distanced itself,” adopting “unprecedented hostile rhetoric towards the EU, often echoing Russian-style disinformation.”