European Commission Expects Serbia to Gradually Align Policy on Russia with EU’s

European Commision

The European Commission (EC) hasn’t received a letter by a group of members of the European Parliament (MEPs), requesting that accession negotiations with Serbia be suspended because the authorities in Belgrade refused to introduce sanctions against Russia for having invaded Ukraine, as the European Union did, but candidate countries are expected to gradually align their policy with the Union’s decisions in the area of security and foreign policy.

It’s a reply to a journalist’s question by a spokesperson for the European Commission, Ana Pisonero, who said on March 14 that she was unable to confirm where the Commission had received the letter from the MEPs. European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi’s spokesperson Pisonero explained that last week the Union indicated that “candidate countries are expected to gradually align with the EU’s decisions and positions, when it comes to the Union’s foreign and security policy.”

Pisonero also said that the Union had introduced strict penalizing measures against Russia for having breached the international law, and that it “expected the candidate countries, like Serbia, to gradually align with those measures.” “We are monitoring the situation, and I have nothing more to say about it,” Varhelyi’s spokeswoman said.