Due to an increased number of declarations issued by the European Union (EU) in connection with the conflict in Ukraine, Serbia’s 2022 alignment rate is just 48 percent, reads the 2022 Analysis of Serbia’s alignment with the European Union’s foreign policy declarations and measures, published by the NGO ISAC Fund.

Because Serbia maintained a stance that it will not align with EU’s restrictive measures against Russia, the progress that it made on the alignment with the EU foreign policy declarations and measures in 2021, with the 62 percent alignment rate, has practically been scrapped, reported the European Western Balkans (EWB) web portal.

As was the case before, Serbia has avoided aligning with those declarations and measures directed against the Russian Federation and the Peoples’ Republic of China, their nationals, or interests. One of the main reasons for this position is the issue of Kosovo, and Serbia still seeks the support of both Russia and China in various international forums, reads the ISAC Fund Analysis.

One of the Analysis authors, Igor Novakovic, told EWB that political declarations and restrictive measures related to Russia were the dominant topic, and that Serbia did not align with any of the EU sanction packages.

In addition to Russia, the most important topic of the EU declarations that Serbia mostly failed to align with is Belarus, but Serbia did align with the first amendment to the restrictive measures published in the declaration on January 12.

ISAC researchers believe that Serbia is trying to “play two fiddles” and send messages to Brussels, Moscow and Minsk that it is measuring its steps.

In addition to its refusal to align with sanctions against Russia, Serbia also did not align with four renewals and additions to sanctions against Iran.

In the course of 2022 Serbia failed to align with the only EU declaration in this period that targeted China, reported EWB.