At the moment of writing this text, a session is starting in the National Assembly, the agenda of which is a package of amendments to electoral laws in order to, allegedly, implement the recommendations ODIHR- a. However, it is only a cover for further complicating and making the election process more difficult, with which the government tries to give the impression that it is doing something on the path of European integration.
Additionally, these laws, known in jargon as "Petrašinovići", are being changed in the shadows "Mrdić's laws", a package of judicial laws due to which Serbia caused a series of negative reactions from the European Union, and is suffering the consequences. Namely, the Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos admitted that since the adoption of Mrdić's laws, Serbia has not even received a euro.
"We are now constantly checking whether all the states that receive money from the Growth Plan meet the criteria. It is true that we have not paid anything since the judicial amendments of a few months ago, but no formal decision was made about not paying," said Marta Kos on May 11, ahead of the meeting of the EU Council for Foreign Affairs.
She additionally clarified that no formal decision was made to freeze the funds from the Growth Plan for Serbia, but that there have been no payments since the adoption of the so-called Mrdić laws. On the other hand, when it comes to the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, Commissioner Kos pointed out that the payment is going well and announced another 100 million euros, but for Albania and Montenegro.
The European Union Growth Plan for Serbia is part of the wider Growth Plan for the Western Balkans for the period 2024-2027. which foresees a total of 6 billion euros for the region, of which Serbia could receive around 1,5 to 1,6 billion through a combination of grants and soft loans. The aim of this plan is to speed up economic development and bring Serbia closer to EU membership by providing earlier access to parts of the European market, encouraging regional cooperation and providing additional investments in infrastructure, economy, green and digital transition. However, the funds are not automatically available, but depend on the implementation of reforms, especially in the area of rule of law, fight against corruption, strengthening of institutions and progress in relations with Kosovo, so in the absence of reforms, the EU can slow down or suspend the payment of money.
If Serbia does not receive funds from the EU Growth Plan for months, it slows down investments, infrastructure projects and economic growth, which affects the economy in the long term and reduces the country's development opportunities. For the government, this means greater political pressure and a weaker position towards the EU, while citizens feel it through slower wage growth, fewer new jobs and a slower improvement in living standards.
The last concrete progress in Serbia's EU integration took place in December 2021, when the so-called Cluster 4 (green agenda and sustainable connectivity) in accession negotiations with the European Union. After that, no new clusters were opened, mainly due to the stalling of reforms in the area of the rule of law and political issues, so the process has practically been at a standstill for several years. During that time, Russia invaded Ukraine, so the EU, until now traditionally tough and strict when it comes to enlargement, relented and decided to loosen the criteria. And that's how we got to the Western Balkans, where Montenegro's entry into the EU is almost a done deal, and the next one that can be prepared is Albania.
We were upset because this government not only did not recognize the moment, but also actively worked to reduce the degree of democracy in Serbia by suppressing the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the media, police brutality and all the miracles that we have been watching and experiencing for 17 months. Let's not talk about free elections.
Bojana Selaković, coordinator of the National Convention on the EU, said at the end of April at the presentation of the publication "The State of Democracy in Serbia 2025" that the Serbian authorities are doing everything but what Brussels is asking for.
"When we as a country should have focused on technical harmonization, we did not do that. Instead, the authorities in Serbia offered transactional arrangements that no one asked for. Now, when that is no longer enough, the Government has turned to technical reforms that, if they had been implemented seven or eight years ago, could have taken the accession process in a completely different direction," said Bojana Selaković.
And we have a chance for expansion because, precisely on May 11, just when she was talking about Serbia not receiving money from the Growth Plan, Marta Kos said that she is in favor of changing the methodology of expansion so that the principle of gradual integration would be applied to areas other than those related to the common market, and she cited security policy as an example, adding that this is being intensively negotiated with EU member states.
"We are still using a methodology that is 40 years old. And that means we live in a different time. This is not a time of peace, we don't have much time."
And if the EU doesn't have much time, Serbia has even less, but it deliberately decides to go backwards.
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