SWP Brussels Office Head: EU Accession Path Progress Should Depend on Upcoming Election’s Democratic Level

Dusan Reljic (Beta/Milos Miskov)

The democratic level of the upcoming elections in Serbia and other Western Balkan countries should serve as a basis for the EU’s evaluation as to which countries would continue their accession process and which would see their process frozen, Dusan Reljic, the head of the Brussels Office of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), said on May 5.

An analysis published ahead of a Summit of the EU and Western Balkan leaders, scheduled for May 6, Reljic recalled that the European Commission had pledged EUR3.3 billion in assistance to the countries in the region to deal with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on their respective accession to the EU, but stressed that without a thorough change in the direction, the initiative was running late.

According to the European Commission, the value of the relief package is far above any other partner’s of the Western Balkans, because the region “is a geostrategic priority for the EU,” Reljic said.

Reljic noted that it seemed, that the EU’s ability to position itself in the Western Balkans, particularly in Serbia as politically the most important country in the region, had weakened since the outbreak of the coronavirus, adding that media outlets in the region had initially been reporting about medical aid supplies shipped from China, Turkey, or Russia.