
The European Parliament (EP) resolution is a strong political signal for Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia, said EP Rapporteur for Serbia Vladimir Bilcik following the adoption of the Resolution on Wednesday.
Over 500 MEPs voted in favor of stipulating the introduction of sanctions against Russia and progress on EU-related reforms as conditions for advancing negotiations with Serbia.
The document is not legally binding for European institutions and member states, but gives European Parliament’s recommendations for European Union’s (EU) future enlargement policy.
Bilcik said the requests set forth in the Resolution are not new. Formulated in this document is what the EU has been asking of Serbia since February 2022, when Russia’s aggression on Ukraine started, he said.
Aligning with EU’s foreign policy has always been an important requirement, the importance of which has been particularly emphasized since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, Bilcik told Radio Free Europe.
He stressed that no one is suspending or slowing down the accession process, but that the EU is clearly saying that negotiations can advance only if it sees clear steps towards the strategic goal that Serbia has set for itself.