{"id":464247,"date":"2026-09-08T11:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/08\/serbia-ue-funarali-mladic-valori-unione\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T12:47:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:47:56","slug":"serbia-costa-and-von-der-leyen-mladic-funeral-runs-counter-to-eu-accession-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/08\/serbia-costa-and-von-der-leyen-mladic-funeral-runs-counter-to-eu-accession-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia, Costa and von der Leyen: Mladi\u0107 funeral runs counter to EU accession values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A row has broken out between Brussels and Belgrade over the state funeral organised by Serbia for the former general Ratko Mladi\u0107, nicknamed the Butcher of Bosnia. \u201cThe elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable. They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe\u2019s recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia\u2019s path towards the European Union,\u201d said<\/a> the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/strong>, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen <\/strong>today (8 September), regarding the funeral of the former general and war criminal, Ratko Mladi\u0107<\/strong>, held yesterday in Belgrade. <\/p>\n

According to reports<\/a> from the main news agencies, Mladi\u0107 was accorded military and state honours yesterday during a ceremony attended by a crowd of around 8,000 people. The two leaders described the images<\/a> as \u201cshocking\u201d. The general died on 27 August whilst in custody in The Hague, in the Netherlands, where, as the two EU leaders recalled, he was serving a life sentence for being \u201cresponsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity\u201d. <\/strong>Mladi\u0107 had been charged with genocide in connection with the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica<\/a>, when the Serbian army invaded the city, killing thousands of men and forcing some 25,000 Muslim women, children and elderly people to leave the enclave. The atrocities he committed earned him the nickname \u201cthe Butcher of Bosnia\u201d in the international media. <\/p>\n

In addition to the deceased\u2019s family, people of all ages were present to pay their last respects, including veterans, families, young people and members of the armed forces, as well as three ministers from the Serbian Government: the Minister of Justice, Nenad Vuji\u0107<\/strong>, the Minister of Culture, Nikola Selakovi\u0107<\/strong>, and the Minister for Transport, Darko Gli\u0161i\u0107<\/strong>. The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, was not present, but his son, Danilo Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, attended. The official reason for the President\u2019s absence was the state visit by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev<\/strong>. However, it remains possible that he did not wish to jeopardise his relationship with the European Union.<\/p>\n

 In October, von der Leyen is due to begin her traditional tour of the Balkans. However, following yesterday\u2019s event, it is not yet clear whether Belgrade will remain on the itinerary. Yesterday, her spokesperson, Paula Pinho<\/strong>, warned<\/a>: \u201cThere is no place for the glorification of war criminals, nor of those who have denied the genocide, nor of those who contradict the most fundamental European values.\u201d When it was pointed out yesterday that a state funeral was being held despite “the appeals from the European Union, which said that the very day of the funeral would be a test for Serbia” <\/strong>\u2014 in the broader context of the country\u2019s EU accession<\/a> \u2014 the spokesperson replied: “We had been told that a state funeral was planned, which did not happen.” <\/p>\n

Last week, Marta Kos (
\nCommissioner for Enlargement) announced<\/a> on her social media channels that she would not be visiting Serbia because \u201cthe glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.\u201d The Serbian President had described this explanation as \u201cextremely short but stupid<\/a>\u201d, stating that he did not intend to prevent people from attending the funeral. Therefore, as of today, it is still unclear whether the occupant of the Berlaymont Building will visit the republic.<\/span> For the time being, this morning\u2019s statement stands, in which, alongside Costa, she merely reiterated that \u201cour thoughts are with all the victims of the crimes committed in the countries of former Yugoslavia.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, in Belgrade, the former general responsible for the Srebrenica massacre was accorded military and state honours. The two leaders said: \u201cThese are shocking images.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":464233,"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","show_comment_section":"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":[29788,25707],"tags":[25871,27175,26065,28069,35624,27335,35607,26071,27956,27742,29754],"class_list":["post-464247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-world-politics","tag-alexandar-vucic-en","tag-belgrade-en","tag-crimini-contro-lumanita","tag-council-en","tag-ratko-mladic","tag-inserbia","tag-genocide-srebrenica-at","tag-ursula-von-del-leyen-en","tag-criminal-war-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464247","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\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464248,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464247\/revisions\/464248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}