Dacic: Serbia Expected EU’s Bigger Aid Package, Quicker Deployment

Ivica Dacic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on April 10 said that Serbia was grateful to the EU on the aid package supplied to help combat coronavirus spread, but that Belgrade had been expecting a bigger aid package and also, quicker deployment.

“The EU supplied the aid in accordance with its potential and at the time it was able to deploy the aid, and we are grateful for that. Did we expect more and especially, did we expect the aid to arrive sooner, honestly speaking – yes,” Dacic has told the three-day weekend issue of Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti.

He noted that Serbia, as an EU candidate country, had many obligations to the EU, which Belgrade had been fulfilling, and therefore Serbia was fully entitled to expect from the EU to be treated as its member in tough times.

“Serbia’s policy on joining the EU has not changed, a membership remains our priority, as it is in the best interest of Serbia. But after the ongoing crisis, a number of the EU Member States will be reconsidering the way in which the EU operates. This will include Serbia, which will do it as a party interested in the future and better functioning of the EU,” Dacic specified.

He added that the EU itself had been facing a number of problems to maintain the trust of its Member States in the values on which the EU had been founded, as the power of those values was best tested in times of need.