Dusko Lopandic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)
Serbia has backslid in all matters on all international indexes, from corruption to democracy and media freedom, which is the basis for a state to join the European Union, the Serbia Center opposition party vice president Dusko Lopandic said on June 10.
Commenting on the Franco-German proposal for EU enlargement, Lopandic pointed out that it is important because it was put forth by the two most important member states.
"On the one hand, you have that normal process, the enlargement procedure, where Serbia has been stuck for more than five years, and now with these ideas France and Germany are trying to offer something to these countries that are still far from membership. The solution is in waiting for a moment when they might potentially return to the normal path, while at the same time having some results," Lopandic stressed.
He recalled that Serbia applied for membership in 2009, initiated negotiations in 2014 and in that first phase progressed relatively quickly.
"Then a turnabout happened. That process of meetings we had, the so-called intergovernmental conferences, was getting increasingly slow, and then the key thing happened which, unfortunately, our leadership failed to recognize - 2022, when the geopolitical situation in Europe changed completely," said Lopandic.
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