Vucevic in Bled: Serbia Will Not Abandon EU Path

Milos. Vučević, Bled, September 2 2024 (BETAPHOTO/STA/Daniel Novakovic)

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said at the Bled Strategic Forum on Sept. 2 that membership in the European Union had been Serbia's geostrategic goal for 20 years and that Belgrade would not deviate from that path, adding that the "project of Europe" could not be considered complete until the entire Western Balkans joined the EU.

Sitting on the Leader's Panel, which also included the prime ministers of Croatia, Slovenia and Albania -- Andrej Plenkovic, Robert Golob and Edi Rama, Vucevic said it was unfair to sideline Western Balkan states in the EU enlargement process due to a new geopolitical development like the war in Ukraine.

Vucevic noted that Serbia had no issue with seeing Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova on the path to the EU, but that it was not fair to Western Balkan states to be pushed aside. He went on to say that Serbia understood the attitude toward those three countries, but that the efforts made by Western Balkan nations should count, too.

Asked to comment on Serbia's "balancing act" between the EU and Russia, Vucevic said Serbia concealed nothing, and was a sovereign, independent country whose goal was to become an EU member and until then had the "full right to protect our national and state interests" in whatever way it considered best.

"We don't do anything behind the [scenes]," Vucevic said, adding that Serbia had a different opinion of sanctions after being under sanctions in the 1990. "We suffered a lot and we don't believe in that [policy]. I don't want to sound as someone who is [a] total pessimist, but I don't see the results of sanctions" because they affect the common people and not the regime, Vucevic told the panel at the Forum, held under the heading A World of Parallel Realities this year.

The Serbian PM went on to say that Serbia recognized the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and considered the country "our very close friend" -- Slavic brothers just like Russians, and noted that Ukraine had not recognized Kosovo as independent.