NGO: Eschewing Tirana Summit Will Distance Serbia from EU

Jelica Minic (Beta/Media Center Belgrade)

Should Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic decide not to participate in the upcoming EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, that would add yet more distance between the Union and Serbia and would lead to Serbia’s isolation, said Jelica Minic, the president of the European Movement in Serbia. 

Speaking for the Dec. 5 edition of the Nova daily, Minic stated that said isolation would entail “sanctions on Serbia for not introducing sanctions against Russia.” Furthermore, Vucic eschewing the summit would “collapse the region’s framework” – which, Minic maintains, has already been put at risk by the naming of Aleksandar Vulin as head of Serbia’s Security Information Agency. 

Citing the responses so far garnered by Vucic’s announcement that he would not attend the summit, Minic claimed that by boycotting one of the region’s ess
ential platforms, and failing to employ said platform to champion its own interests, Serbia would clearly be “backing itself into a corner.”
“It should be emphasized that such a decision would also drastically undermine Serbia’s position in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. It would erase any leeway for de-escalating the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and avoiding further tensions and the possibility of conflict,” Minic concluded.