Picula: EU needs to look carefully at Serbia

“It is very important for European institutions to scrutinise very carefully what is happening in Serbia. At the moment, Serbia and Aleksandar Vučić are backsliding in terms of democratic standards – especially in the last six months, when we have seen mass protests in the streets of Serbian cities. The response from Vučić is not something to welcome. Serbia is backsliding on many democratic indicators and standards,” Europe Alive reported him as telling BGNES.

“For the EU, the Western Balkans are not just neighbouring countries. There we have a group of candidate countries, and unfortunately, we have seen over the last few years that the situation is not improving. Each of the candidate countries copes with internal disputes and problems. As the rapporteur of the European Parliament for Serbia, I must say that Serbia is the single most important country in the Western Balkans thanks to its size, population, and influence on neighbouring countries – first of all Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo,” Picula said.

He warned that the Serbian World that some officials in Belgrade have been speaking of is dangerous adding that the Western Balkans belong in the EU “not in imaginary projects under the umbrella of Serbia, Picula said.

“But the real question is why the Parliament is the only EU institution that scrutinizes the situation there (in Serbia) so critically. Others, like the European Commission and partly the European Council, have a different approach. Why? It would be better to ask the leaders of these institutions. We need to equalize and standardize our approach to Serbia because the EU is not only a community that shares important features like the single market and currency – it is also a community of values and shared risks. And I don’t see that the Serbian leadership follows these aspects – they are more interested in European funds,” noted Picula.