Serbia applied for European Union membership in 2009 and was accepted as an official candidate country in 2012 but since then little progress has been made towards joining the bloc with Aleksandar Vučić’s government accused of democratic backsliding.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Serbia`s President Aleksandar Vucic has welcomed the EU`s enlargement commissioner to Belgrade
00:07 for talks about the country`s membership. Oliver Vahe said the next European commission
00:13 would have to be an enlargement commission and hope to see Serbia join.
00:18 But he also said that Belgrade needs to continue with democratic reforms.
00:24 One cannot forget about the need to align further with the EU foreign policy. This is,
00:32 again, something that we have discussed and where we need Serbia to move along.
00:38 Vucic was optimistic that Serbia`s non-alignment with EU foreign policy would not hamper efforts
00:44 to join the bloc.
00:53 Serbia has been an officially EU candidate country since 2012, but since then there have
00:58 been several bumps in the road.
01:03 The country was rocked by protests last year following two mass shootings which left 18
01:08 people dead. Initially demanding tougher gun control laws, the rally soon morphed into
01:13 anti-government protests.
01:17 Protesters were angry about democratic backsliding, accusing the Vucic government of authoritarianism
01:22 and corruption.
01:26 Serbia raised eyebrows in Brussels after refusing to join in with EU sanctions on Russia following
01:31 its invasion of Ukraine.
01:34 Vucic claims to follow a neutral policy balancing ties with Moscow and Brussels.
01:41 But Serbia has also purchased Russian gas on favorable terms and added Russian hardware
01:46 to its military arsenal.
01:51 And there`s Kosovo. It declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade refuses
01:57 to recognize.
02:00 Last month, EU foreign affairs ministers agreed to freeze Serbia`s accession process if it
02:05 didn`t implement an agreement on normalizing its relationship with Kosovo.
02:10 The main condition is that Serbia stop obstructing Kosovo`s efforts to join key international
02:16 organizations such as the UN, the Council of Europe and NATO.
02:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]