EC President to Skip Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina on Western Balkans Tour

Ursula von der Leyen (BETAPHOTO/European Parliament/Alexis HAULOT)

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is visiting the Western Balkans from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, but will not be visiting Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In light of the upcoming parliamentary and general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia, the president intends to visit these countries at a later date," a spokesperson for the European Commission, Arianna Podesta, told reporters in Brussels on Sept. 18.

Podesta said von der Leyen would visit Tirana, Pristina, Podgorica and Skopje as part of her Western Balkans tour, where she will meet with heads of state and government and visit EU-funded projects. The talks will focus on "the steps ahead on our partners' EU path and the ongoing progress of gradual integration," Podesta said. She added that this will be the sixth consecutive year that von der Leyen is visiting the region, quoting the EC leader as saying at the EU-Western Balkans Summit in June that "our Union will not be complete without the Western Balkans."

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the decision to cancel Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Serbia because of elections scheduled for late October is "an elegant way" to call off the trip. Asked on the sidelines of the Carpathian Summit in Ukraine about the cancellation of von der Leyen's visits to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vucic said "they used elections as an elegant excuse."