{"id":425387,"date":"2025-04-30T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/04\/30\/serbia-ue-kos-governo-studenti\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T18:23:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:23:57","slug":"serbia-brussels-to-new-government-our-demands-in-line-with-those-of-the-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/04\/30\/serbia-brussels-to-new-government-our-demands-in-line-with-those-of-the-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia, Brussels to new government: “Our demands in line with those of the students”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – After months of ambiguity<\/a>, the European Commission is taking the opportunity of the new government in Serbia to set the record straight and set some red lines: what the EU is demanding of the longtime candidate country is “closely in line with the demands of the protesting citizens<\/strong>,” said Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos<\/strong>, addressing the newly elected prime minister Djuro Macut<\/strong> and a delegation of students who have been fueling since November the wave of protests<\/a> against authoritarian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n

In her first visit to the Balkan country since Vu\u010di\u0107 handed the executive into the hands of 61-year-old doctor and university professor Macut\u2014who has no political experience and is not a member of any party, but has supported the president’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the past\u2014Kos wanted to send a message. After institutional meetings in Belgrade with Vu\u010di\u0107 and Macut, she went to Novi Sad Station<\/strong> to lay a bouquet of roses at the site of the accident in which 15 people lost their lives last November 1. She met with civil society organisations, students, professors, and delegations from opposition parties.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos in Novi Sad, 30\/4\/25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a post on X addressed to the “students of Novi Sad,” he said, “I understand you. I want to reiterate that what the EU is asking of Serbia is strictly in line with the demands of the protesting citizens. But the most important thing is that you, the younger generation, can benefit from the many opportunities the EU has to offer<\/strong>.” An offer presented by Kos herself to the premier and reiterated for the cameras, “Our offer to the Serbian people is as follows,” the commissioner said, “Work with us on the reforms necessary to make your accession to the EU possible, work with us to establish an\u00a0independent and corruption-fighting judicial system<\/strong>, work with us to put in place laws and institutions that guarantee the freedom and independence of your media<\/strong>, work with us to establish an electoral framework that ensures that it is the will of the Serbian people and only their will that decides majorities.”<\/p>\n

One hand stretched toward the students, the other toward Macut’s government, whose energy Kos “feels to cooperate with us,” in an effort to reconcile a country in danger of missing a train that passes “once in a generation,” the one to “complete the unification of Europe.” In a decisive speech, Kos stressed that “many candidate countries have realised this and are implementing reforms faster than ever.” The same cannot be said for Belgrade, mired in an increasingly unpopular and authoritarian regime, as well as misaligned with Brussels on foreign policy. “I would like the same to happen in Serbia,” he added. “Without these changes, Serbia cannot progress on its path to the EU<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n

Marta Kos and, to her right, the new Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut, 29\/04\/25<\/p>\n

Conversely, she has no more hands to reach out to Vu\u010di\u0107, the man who has been in power since 2014 and is chiefly responsible for Serbia’s removal from the European path. The nationalist leader, who has strengthened ties with Vladimir Putin in recent years, is expected in Moscow on May 9<\/strong> to attend Victory Day celebrations, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazism and the end of World War II. According to a European Commission spokesman, Kos conveyed to the pro-Russian president “a message also shared by many member states,” namely that his possible participation in the May 9 parade “will\u00a0<\/strong>affect Serbia’s path to<\/strong>\u00a0the EU.”<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Vu\u010di\u0107 has described<\/a> the meeting with Kos as\u00a0“a good conversation about the key challenges and opportunities of our European journey,” and stressed their “full readiness to accelerate reforms<\/strong>, not because of bureaucratic requirements, but because we believe they will\u00a0<\/span>bring a better life to our citizens.” Perhaps Vu\u010di\u0107 was not referring to those 47 citizens who took the case to the European Court of Human Rights<\/strong>, denouncing the alleged use<\/a> of a sonic cannon\u2014illegal in Serbia\u2014to disperse demonstrators at the huge protest last March 15 in Belgrade. Today the ECHR<\/a>, noting that up to 4,000 people reported the incident, partially granted the plaintiffs’ claims and indicated an interim measure to the Serbian government: “Until further notice, any use of sonic devices for crowd control purposes must be prevented in the future.”<\/p>\n

\n

To the students of Novi Sad: I hear you.<\/p>\n

I want to reiterate that what the EU asks from Serbia closely aligns with the demands of the citizens protesting.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, I want you, the young generation to benefit from the many opportunities the EU has to offer. pic.twitter.com\/Ff6FiQcA6J<\/a><\/p>\n

– Marta Kos (@MartaKosEU) April 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos met in Belgrade with President Vu\u010di\u0107 and newly appointed Prime Minister Macut. She then travelled to Novi Sad, the site of the incident that triggered protests that have continued for more than six months. EU warns, “If Vu\u010di\u0107 goes to Moscow, it will impact accession path.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":425334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[30670,26065,31127,27334,28942,26071],"class_list":["post-425387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-alexandar-vucic-en","tag-djuro-macut-and","tag-enlargement","tag-marta-kos-en","tag-inserbia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425387"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425398,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425387\/revisions\/425398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}