{"id":426583,"date":"2025-05-13T14:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/13\/costa-serbia-belgrado-vucic-balcani\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T16:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:05:15","slug":"costa-meets-vucic-but-without-condemning-belgrades-drift-toward-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/13\/costa-meets-vucic-but-without-condemning-belgrades-drift-toward-moscow\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa meets Vu\u010di\u0107 but without condemning Belgrade’s drift toward Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0The EU is abandoning the stick and opting for the carrot with Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>‘s Serbia, even though the authoritarian leader keeps close ties with Vladimir Putin<\/strong> and runs the country as a personal fiefdom<\/strong>. However, European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/strong>, on an official visit to the capital, shows a friendly face, encouraging the candidate state to\u00a0pursue\u00a0the path of reform<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Costa <\/strong>begins his tour of the Western Balkans <\/strong>with Belgrade: three days of meetings in the region’s chancelleries, moving in no particular order (and at different speeds) toward accession to the twelve-star club<\/strong>. This morning (May 13), he was in Serbia.<\/strong>\u00a0He will move to Bosnia-Herzegovina <\/strong>in the afternoon,<\/strong> then Montenegro<\/strong>, Kosovo<\/strong>, Northern Macedonia,<\/strong> and finally Albania<\/strong>, where on Friday (May 16), the European Political Community<\/strong> will hold its\u00a0sixth summit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adhesion and Reforms<\/h3>\n

Costa’s main institutional engagement was a bilateral meeting with Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, the nationalist head of state in power since 2014, who is transforming Serbian democracy into an authoritarian regime<\/strong> and is moving Belgrade further\u00a0away from Brussels and closer\u00a0to Moscow<\/strong>. The respective delegations mainly discussed EU-Serbian relations<\/strong>\u00a0from the perspective of the enlargement of the Union to the Western Balkans<\/strong>, as well as economic opportunities.<\/p>\n

\n

There is a positive momentum for enlargement and a clear opportunity for Serbia to seize it.<\/p>\n

During my meetings today in Belgrade with President @avucic<\/a>, PM Macut @SerbianGov<\/a> and Parliament speaker @anabrnabic<\/a>, I stressed the importance of progressing towards EU accession\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/alm4DhzBGA<\/a><\/p>\n

– Ant\u00f3nio Costa (@eucopresident) ###\u00a7##<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the joint press conference at the presidential palace, the two did not hold back\u00a0on courtesy\u00a0and pleasantries. Costa said he was pleased to hear that “EU integration remains a top priority<\/strong>” of the Serbian government. He\u00a0praised the trajectory of a “stable, peaceful, and prosperous country<\/strong> that has faced the legacy of the past and chosen to embrace its democratic and European future.”<\/p>\n

The European Council president stressed that the accession process\u00a0is not an imposition from Brussels but “a free choice of each state.”\u00a0The Serbian government must now work hard on reforms<\/strong> to live up to its commitments. The third cluster of negotiations will be opened when Belgrade has made sufficient progress on freedom of the media<\/strong>, combating corruption<\/strong>, and reforming the electoral law<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Belgrade-Moscow axis (embarrassing Brussels)<\/h3>\n

\n

However, there were a couple of big elephants in the room<\/strong> that Costa and Vu\u010di\u0107 shared with reporters. The first is the political closeness<\/strong> of the Serbian president to his Russian counterpart,\u00a0Vladimir Putin<\/strong>. It is a\u00a0toxic relationship that, at least theoretically, should create major embarrassments for the leader of a country that is a candidate<\/strong>\u00a0to enter\u00a0the EU, but that seems to\u00a0do little to unsettle the head of state.<\/p>\n

More importantly, the participation of the Belgrade strongman<\/strong> at the victory parade<\/strong> on Red Square in Moscow on\u00a0May 9 did not go unnoticed. It was a real slap in the face<\/strong> to the head of EU diplomacy,\u00a0Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, who last month\u00a0exhorted member states and candidate countries not to travel to the czar’s court<\/strong> with a warning<\/a> both to the Serbian president and the Slovak premier Robert Fico<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany on May 9, 2025 in Moscow (photo: Vyacheslav Prokofyev\/Sputnik via Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Costa threw water on the fire, <\/strong>claiming that Vu\u010di\u0107’s visit to the Federation’s capital was to “celebrate an event from the past.” <\/strong>At the same time, “in the present, Serbia is fully engaged in the accession process,” <\/strong>as certified by his interlocutor.<\/p>\n

However, the former Portuguese premier noted that for this to occur, Belgrade must ensure “full alignment<\/strong>” with the Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)<\/strong>, which includes condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and supporting Kyiv. “We cannot celebrate the liberation 80 years ago and not condemn the invasion of other countries today<\/strong>,” Costa noted. However, he then\u00a0extended a hand to Vu\u010di\u0107: “We do not have the same view on everything,” he admitted, but “the only way to deal with differences is to talk and understand each other<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Silence on anti-government protests<\/h3>\n

The second elephant in the room is Vu\u010di\u0107’s management of the Serbian state<\/strong>, where corruption is rampant,<\/strong> and impunity stands in the way of real change<\/strong>. For months now, instead of subsiding, there have been\u00a0what could be<\/a> the\u00a0biggest anti-government protests<\/strong> since the ouster of communist leader Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107<\/strong> at the turn of the millennium.\u00a0Massive\u00a0demonstrations that the Belgrade security apparatus represses with violence<\/strong> resorting, it seems, even to instruments banned by international conventions such as so-called “sonic cannons<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Since a bus shelter collapsed in Novi Sad <\/strong>last November, killing 15 people, a wave of popular discontent has shaken\u00a0the Balkan country,<\/strong> threatening to weaken\u00a0Vu\u010di\u0107’s grip on power. Enlivening the Serbian squares is, above all, a motivated and organized student movement<\/strong>, which just yesterday (May 12)) arrived in Brussels<\/a> after a 2,000-kilometer<\/strong>\u00a0maxi-marathon relay <\/strong>to bring their protest — now widely cross-cutting and intergenerational — in front of the Berlaymont Palace. It is the protest of a people who want to build a European future for themselves instead of remaining a satellite of the Kremlin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Protesters in Belgrade on March 15,\u00a02025 (photo: Andrej Isakovic\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the two leaders diplomatically sidestepped the issue (on which the EU Commission started\u00a0raising its voice<\/a> recently).\u00a0There was no word about the erosion of the rule of law<\/strong> or the repression of dissent,<\/strong> two dynamics that do not mesh well with the Copenhagen Criteria<\/strong> that candidate countries must meet to join the Union.<\/p>\n

For now, Costa prefers to maintain a conciliatory tone.<\/strong> Since taking office as president of the European Council in\u00a0December, he has prided himself on putting the Western Balkan partners<\/strong> in the spotlight to enlarge the 12-star club. Before departing for Sarajevo, the former Portuguese premier also met with Prime Minister Duro Macut <\/strong>and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabi\u0107.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Council president began a tour of the Western Balkans, including a visit to the Serbian capital. However, speaking alongside the nationalist leader, he struck a conciliatory tone despite the government’s increasingly blatant rifts with EU partners and flirtations with the Kremlin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":426574,"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":[27175,26458,26065,25836,30632,26071],"class_list":["post-426583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-alexandar-vucic-en","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-protest-serbia-en","tag-inserbia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426583","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\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426583"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426615,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426583\/revisions\/426615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}