The European Commission did not specifically answer the question of whether the attitude of the Serbian authorities towards the funeral of the former commander of the Army of the Republika Srpska Ratko Mladić could produce consequences for the European way Of Serbia, including possibly freezing EU funds or slowing down accession negotiations.
However, the Commission clearly stated that the glorification of war criminals, denial genocidal and historical revisionism are not in accordance with European values and that there is no place for such phenomena in to the European Union nor in the candidate countries for membership, writes RTS.
European Commission spokesman Christian Wiegand reminded that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Ratko Mladić to life imprisonment in 2017. According to his statements, Mladić was a convicted war criminal responsible for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, and he died while serving a life sentence for the genocide in Srebrenica and crimes against humanity. Wiegand assessed that the crimes for which Mladić was convicted were among the heaviest known to mankind.
When asked by journalists whether the presence of ministers and representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces at the funeral could affect the future relationship of the European Commission towards Belgrade, the spokesmen of the Commission did not give a concrete answer. It remained unclear whether such a move could affect decisions on European funds or support for the opening of new clusters in the negotiations on Serbia's membership in the EU.
The chief spokeswoman of the Commission, Paola Pinho, said that the position of the European Commission has already been clearly communicated to the Serbian authorities, while the possible next steps will be known if they come to be.
At the same time, the Commission pointed out that its reaction to the announcements of the possible awarding of state honors to Mladic, in its opinion, had a certain effect. Piño reminded that the possibility of a burial with state honors was discussed before, but that it did not happen in the end, leaving the journalists to assess the importance of the Commission's previously stated position.
The European Commission announced its reaction at the time of the funeral in Belgrade, emphasizing again that the glorification of persons convicted of war crimes, the denial of genocide and revisionism represent the opposite of fundamental European values.
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