How the SNS representatives went from disparaging the European Union and European delegations to messages about strategic commitment to European integration in a few months
While Pionirski Park is still a prohibited zone for the citizens of Serbia, representatives progressive have suddenly in the last few days "mouth full" of the European Union and European values. This is where the pretense of commitment to "European integration" falls flat, because Ćaciland - a hotbed of criminals paid to defend Aleksandar Vučić, an occupied territory in the middle of Belgrade - is in total contrast to everything that a country striving for EU membership should stand for.
Although she is a commissioner EU for the expansion, Marta Kos announced in the second half of April the freezing of 1,5 billion dollars of aid intended for Serbia, until yesterday the government representatives were "firing bursts" and belittling the work of European institutions.
However, almost in one day, the record was "changed", so now we can hear the holders of state positions seriously assuring the international and domestic public that Serbia has a place in the European Union, as well as that we as a country have fulfilled numerous obligations for membership in this organization.
First, the Minister for European Integration of Serbia, Nemanja Starović, stated in Nicosia that Serbia is in favor of "phased accession to the European Union", with the assessment that this is not a substitute for full membership, but "a bridge leading to that goal".
Phased accession is not a substitute for full membership, but a bridge that leads to that goal, while at the same time it brings tangible benefits for citizens, reduces fatigue from accession, strengthens pro-European mood and proves in the right way that the reforms pay off, Starović explained at the meeting of the EU General Affairs Council, the relevant ministry announced.
He also emphasized Serbia's "commitment" to the implementation of reform processes that lead it to EU membership, which, admittedly, no one recognizes.
Then the Minister of Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović spoke, who during the presentation of the Annual Report of the Secretariat on the Progress of Serbia on the Implementation of Regulations in the Energy Field for 2025, said that Serbia is the only country in the Western Balkans that meets the conditions for joining the electricity market of the European Union.
She said that the verification takes a certain amount of time, that the European Community has confirmed compliance, and that we are now waiting for the position of the European Commission, which is taking longer because this is the first time that the process of integration into the electricity market is being done with a country that is not a member of the EU.
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As she said, if the Commission has objections, they will discuss those objections.
Đedović Handanović said at the session of the Parliamentary Energy Committee that it is important that Serbia harmonizes and follows the recommendations, and that the Energy Community and the European Commission recognize these efforts.
The efforts were also recognized in the assessments of the fulfillment of the reform agenda, because 40 percent of the approved funds so far within the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans related to activities in the field of transformations in the energy sector, said Đedović Handanović, adding that investments in the transmission network and energy infrastructure are needed.
As the icing on the cake of Serbia's latest "turn" towards the goals of the European Union, the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Marko Đurić, during the conversation with the head of Dutch diplomacy, Tom Berendsen - that "membership in the European Union is Serbia's strategic commitment and foreign policy priority, and that the opening of Cluster 3 would contribute to the acceleration of the negotiation process."
During the meeting in Brussels, where he attended an informal meeting of colleagues from the Western Balkans with EU foreign ministers, Đurić emphasized that the Netherlands is an important partner of Serbia in the EU accession process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia announced.
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Đurić pointed out to Berendsen the potential benefits of the gradual joining of partners from the Western Balkans to the Schengen area and the EU Single Market.
He assessed that there is no decision of the European Union that would deprive Serbia of economic or development support from the EU, but it seems to him that in public communication about the use of that money there is a form of "political gamesmanship" to politically influence internal relations in the country.
Đurić stated that Serbia did not deserve to be treated as a "black sheep" by its actions and that it is the country that is leading in the adoption of various legal, organizational and all other steps, adding that the country has its own internal specificities, internal situation.
These latest statements seem strange, to say the least, because top government officials have been sending completely different messages to Brussels since the beginning of the year.
Tensions were raised back in January, during the visit of the delegation of the European Parliament to Serbia, as part of the so-called "fact-finding" mission, whose goal was to assess the state of democracy, media freedom and the rule of law in the country. The delegation was led by the EP rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced even before the arrival of the delegation that he would boycott the MEPs.
"It doesn't occur to me to waste time and meet with Picula. I have time to meet with those who want good for Serbia, and I don't want to see them and I don't want to talk to them," said Vučić on the occasion of the arrival of European parliamentarians in Belgrade.
On that occasion, he described the delegation of the European Parliament as a group that comes "uninvited".
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The rhetoric of derision was further sharpened by the head of the SNS parliamentary group in the Serbian Parliament, Milenko Jovanov, who answered a journalist's question whether he would talk to the European delegation:
"I have more important things to do, to rearrange the socks in the drawer."
With that statement, Jovanov openly relativized the importance of the meeting with the delegation of the European Parliament, and the comment was interpreted by the domestic public as a demonstrative mockery of European institutions and their representatives.
Picula reacted to such rhetoric, rejecting the claims of local officials that the delegation was coming without notice.
"It is not true that the delegation is coming unannounced. The Serbian embassy in Brussels was properly informed about this, and the EU Delegation in Belgrade worked on the program," said Picula, assessing that the government in Serbia avoids dialogue with European institutions.
The President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, did not show her willingness to meet with the delegation either. During the visit of European parliamentarians, she was out of the country, while domestic and regional media assessed that move as demonstrative ignoring of the mission of the European Parliament.
"The mission of the European Parliament does not represent European values, but brutally and inappropriately interferes in the internal affairs of Serbia and takes the side of those who want to bring chaos into society," said Brnabić.
SNS MP and lawyer Vladimir Đukanović repeatedly attacked Tonino Pizzula and European institutions this year. One of the more striking announcements was related to the EP rapporteur for Serbia:
"Tonino Picula is proof that there are proven Serb-haters sitting in the European Parliament who want destabilization of Serbia, not a European future."
In another post, he assessed that the European Parliament is turning into a "political tool for disciplining disobedient states", with the message that Serbia should not take lessons from such institutions.
SNS MP Nebojša Bakarec also had a series of inflammatory comments against the EU and European representatives:
"Individual MEPs are behaving like colonial rulers of Serbia."
Bakarec described European criticism of the state of democracy and the media in Serbia as "hypocritical attacks by a bureaucracy that has no legitimacy among the citizens of Serbia."
Commenting on the criticism from Brussels, the vice-president of the SNS Main Board and official Sandra Božić said that "the European Union should first look at the problems in its own backyard, instead of paying attention to Serbia."
She also added that "individual European officials openly support the opposition in Serbia", thereby disputing the neutrality of European institutions.
The aforementioned statements of state officials are only a fraction of public outbursts that create a negative attitude towards the European Union and its representatives. In order not to forget something, the regime's media were in charge, which on a daily basis in the public space promotes the position that Tonino Picula is a first-class political opponent and enemy of Serbia, and the EP mission is an attempt to interfere in the country's internal affairs.
The citizens of Belgrade can find evidence of this at almost every step, because on a large number of facades there is the regime's political message from yesterday: "Blockers - Piculići".
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