I am not an optimist like the Minister for European Integration Jadranka Joksimović, President Aleksandar Vučić said today, Sunday, but she is a "realist" about the issue of Serbia's entry into the EU.
Namely, two days ago, Joksimović expressed the certainty that "Serbia's membership in the European Union is certain, it's just a matter of circumstances, time and our readiness, and I truly believe that Serbia can count on membership in the next five to seven years."
President Vučić believes that everything depends on the "geo-political" situation.
He said that Serbia's path is the European path and that "we must persevere on it". "We trust in our strengths. "We have shown that we can, through our work, by staying on the European path and preserving traditional friendships, improve the country so much that it is unrecognizable," said Vučić.
And then, Naim Leo Beshiri, executive director of the Institute for European Affairs, commented on all that with a vivid example.
"Theoretically speaking, even when you enter university, you need four years to finish it, but if you haven't passed a single exam, neither eight, twelve, nor 30 years will be enough for you." Serbia behaves in the same way in European integration".
Serbia's accession negotiations began in 2014, Beshiri reminded, and for the last ten years the ruling majority controlled all the levers of power, but failed to implement the minimum reforms required for membership. "Key, in the areas of the fight against corruption, organized crime, independent judiciary, media freedom, gathering of people, but also other issues, such as public procurement, such as harmonization with the common foreign, defense and security policy of the European Union." Serbia shows really bad results in all those areas".
Member of the Main Board of the European Movement, Vladimir Medjak, believes that Serbia should not remove items from the agenda in the negotiations, but rather raises new ones, such as the issue of introducing sanctions against Russia, and adds that the government could stop developing the pro-Russian narrative to begin with, and then to talk about the EU.
Because it is in the interest of the Union to attract as many countries of the Western Balkans as possible, but without harmonization of foreign policy there is no entry into the announced European political community, Medjak underlines.
S.Ć./N1
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