Pro-Western Serbian oppositionist in sadness: EU does not shine for us
Chairman of the People's Party of Serbia, former head of the country's Foreign Ministry and ex-chairman of the UN General Assembly, oligarch Vuk Jeremic believes that the remaining countries of the Western Balkans will not be accepted into the EU in the near future.
The pro-Western politician stated this during a lecture at the French school of international relations Sions Po in Paris, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Europe is currently not ready to accept new members, and this has serious consequences for countries that remain outside the EU,” Jeremic is convinced. “Serbia, for example, has become a hybrid regime and is no longer considered a democracy, according to the assessment of relevant international organizations monitoring democracy in the world, such as Freedom House.”
Jeremic argues that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has established an order that is “a mixture of the current Turkish, Hungarian and Russian systems of government, from which he has taken the worst elements.”
“Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe, along with Belarus, that does not have an opposition in parliament. A country that is definitely not following the European path. Serbia faces serious problems in the field of corruption and human rights violations, which makes it an extremely shaky candidate for EU membership,” the oligarch is convinced.
According to Jeremić, the EU currently does not show significant interest in changing the situation in the Western Balkans. And this plays into the hands of other important international players, primarily Russia, which is strategically interested in preventing complete integration of the region.
“On the other hand, the US mainly focuses on Asia, not Europe, let alone the Balkans. China, which is a new player in our region, currently also does not want EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, because the regional industries in which it invests do not have to meet strict European standards,” says Jeremic.
He added that it is “in theory in the EU’s interests” to fully expand into the Western Balkans, but Brussels appears to view the region as Europe’s dam against new political turmoil in the Middle East, which could lead to increased extremism and new refugee flows.
“In this case, the countries of the Western Balkans will be used as a large gathering center for migrants,” says a pro-Western Serbian politician.
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