Members of the European People's Party expressed deep concern and strong indignation at the events at Ratko Mladić's funeral. The expulsion of SNS, which has the status of an associate member, is being considered
Within European People's Party (EPP), the largest political groups in to the European Parliament, growing pressure from MEPs demanding suspension or complete expulsion Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) from this political family, reports the Brussels portal Politiko and the television network Euronews.
The process of internal review of the status of the SNS, which has been an associate member of the EPP since 2016, was initiated by the president of the group, Manfred Weber, in September 2025, after the harsh response of the Serbian authorities and the repression of the participants of civil and student protests against corruption.
According to the media, internal discontent within the EPP culminated at the end of September 2026 during the group's political assembly in Toulouse. High-ranking members of the party expressed deep concern and strong indignation at the events on bury the former commander of the Republika Srpska Army, Ratko Mladić in Belgrade, who died at the end of August in the UN detention unit in The Hague at the age of 84.
EPP members concluded that state honors and the presence of high-ranking Serbian officials at the funeral of a convicted war criminal "cannot be ignored" in the current process of revising the status of the SNS.
The Austrian MEP from the EPP, Lukas Mandl, was extremely frank in his statement to Euronews:
"Not a single segment Vučićeva politics does not fit into the EPP universe. The EPP is there for the people, not for the autocrats."
Mandl explicitly demanded that the Serbian ruling party be expelled, calling the presence of officials at the funeral "horrible and unacceptable behavior in connection with the burial of one of the last European war criminals of the 20th century."
The funeral had previously caused a wave of sharp condemnations from the highest officials of the European Union institutions, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
In addition to internal tensions in Brussels, the head of the Bulgarian delegation in the EPP, Andrej Kovachev, publicly criticized the policy of official Belgrade, emphasizing that the policy of "sitting on two chairs" and balancing between the European Union and the Russian Federation has been pursued for too long.
As reported by the Beta news agency, pressure on the EPP comes from outside the group itself. The European Green Party has officially called on the Narodniks to sever ties with SNS. A similar appeal was made by American Republican Congressman Joe Wilson in a letter to Manfred Weber, warning that the SNS uses the political reputation of the EPP for internal legitimacy in Serbia, while at the same time collapsing democratic standards.
EPP leader Manfred Weber also strongly condemned the involvement of the Serbian state leadership in Ratko Mladić's funeral, but for now refrained from formally submitting a proposal to revoke SNS membership.
Sources from Brussels confirm that the report on the status of the SNS is nearing completion and that it is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. However, EPP officials confirmed to the media that no final decision will be made before the extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia, which are scheduled for October 25, 2026.
The EPP leadership wants to avoid a situation in which the publication of the report would be interpreted as direct interference by Brussels in the election campaign, especially considering the specific political context in the country. Aleksandar Vučić resigned from the post of president of the country in order to be the SNS candidate for prime minister in the upcoming elections.
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