{"id":1188263,"date":"2026-09-05T17:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188263\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:51:24","slug":"eu-enlargement-commissioner-cancels-planned-serbia-visit-over-war-criminal-ratko-mladic-glorification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188263\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Enlargement Commissioner cancels planned Serbia visit over war criminal Ratko Mladi\u0107 glorification"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU\u2019s Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos<\/strong>, announced that she cancelled an impending visit to Serbia, a candidate country for EU membership, due to concerns regarding the \u201cglorification\u201d of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladi\u0107<\/strong> following his death. Although Mladi\u0107 was convicted of genocide by a United Nations court, he is regarded as a hero by many in Serbia.<\/p>\n

Mladi\u0107\u2019s remains were repatriated to Belgrade on a Serbian government flight<\/a> from The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday, one week after his passing. His burial is scheduled to take place in a Belgrade cemetery in the coming days. <\/p>\n

In 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for orchestrating the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, as well as for conducting a prolonged siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during the 1992-1995 conflict. His actions also included the establishment of concentration camps for detained non-Serb civilians and enemy combatants.<\/p>\n

Upon arrival in Belgrade, Mladi\u0107\u2019s coffin, draped in the national flag, was respectfully carried by Serbian soldiers to a van for transport to a military hospital. Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic<\/strong> was present on the flight, accompanied by Mladi\u0107\u2019s family members. As the convoy made its way through the city, supporters lit flares to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

Kos said on X that \u201cthe glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRatko Mladi\u0107 was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,\u201c Kos said. \u201cThe return of his remains to Belgrade reminds Europe of the darkest pages in our recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regional N1 television in Belgrade reported that Serbia\u2019s President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong> characterised Kos\u2019s explanation as \u201cvery short but lacking substance.\u201c Vu\u010di\u0107 expressed concern that Kos did not clarify \u201cwho glorified anything,\u201c and suggested that it may be necessary to consider restrictions on attendance at the upcoming funeral. <\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, Kos indicated that the days ahead would present \u201ca significant test\u201d for Serbia regarding the burial, which is expected to attract a substantial number of attendees. <\/p>\n

Full state honours for a war criminal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darko Mladi\u0107<\/strong>, the son of Ratko Mladi\u0107, announced a military commemoration on Saturday. His coffin will be displayed in a Belgrade church on Monday morning for the public to pay their respects before his funeral and burial later that day. Vujic stated that Mladi\u0107 would receive full state honours, prompting outrage in the Balkans, where ethnic tensions linger after the 1992-1995 Bosnian War that killed over 100,000 people. Last year, Serbia also buried another convicted war criminal, Neboj\u0161a Pavkovi\u0107<\/strong>, with full military honours. <\/p>\n

While Serbia seeks EU membership, it remains defiant about its wartime actions, often accusing the West of anti-Serb bias. Following Mladi\u0107\u2019s death, many Serbs held vigils in his honour, and a large turnout is expected at the funeral.<\/p>\n

Regarding the funeral, Vu\u010di\u0107 announced that Ratko Mladi\u0107\u2019s family made the arrangements. \u201cI have spoken to the Mladi\u0107 family, and I hope everything proceeds in a dignified manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

European officials condemn Mladi\u0107 glorification<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O\u2019Flaherty<\/strong>, on Friday urged authorities in Serbia and in the Serb-run entity of Bosnia to \u201ccounter the glorification of convicted war criminals,\u201c which is illegal in Bosnia and \u201cis not protected speech under the European Convention on Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI abhor the public glorification of Ratko Mladi\u0107, a deceased war criminal convicted for the Srebrenica genocide and crimes against humanity,\u201d O\u2019Flaherty stated.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Foreign Minister, Maxime Prevot<\/strong>, strongly opposed granting funeral honours to Ratko Mladi\u0107, calling it \u201cshameful and disrespectful to the victims.\u201c He emphasised his condemnation of this act in a message to his Serbian counterpart responsible for European affairs.<\/p>\n

Calls are growing for the European People\u2019s Party (EPP)\u2014Europe\u2019s largest political bloc\u2014to reevaluate its ties with President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s national populist Serbian Progressive Party. Both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola<\/strong> are members of the EPP.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Prebili\u010d<\/strong>, a Slovenian member of the European Parliament, urged the EPP to stop providing a supportive environment for Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s party, which he accused of \u201copenly celebrating convicted war criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serbia\u2019s bid to join the European Union has stalled due to concerns over democratic backsliding<\/a> and Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s refusal to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The Srebrenica massacre was the first genocide officially recognised in Europe after World War II, where Serb forces overran a U.N. \u201csafe haven,\u201c executing men and boys and burying their bodies in mass graves. <\/p>\n

Mladi\u0107 was a notorious figure in the Bosnian War, which caused over 100,000 deaths and left more than 1 million homeless before ending in 1995 with a US-brokered peace agreement.<\/p>\n

This article used information from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EU\u2019s Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, announced that she cancelled an impending visit to Serbia, a candidate country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1060451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[6502,322013,322014,41776,201046,2000,10247,299,5187,2557,35567,44400,322015,4582,60437,223723,80385,322016,322017,322018,321476,78663,46245,6567,321477,26280,657,322019,1220,283911,322020],"class_list":["post-1188263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-aleksandar-vucic","tag-bosnian-muslims","tag-concentration-camps","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-democratic-backsliding","tag-eu","tag-eu-enlargement","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-peoples-party","tag-genocide","tag-glorification","tag-human-rights","tag-marta-kos","tag-massacre","tag-maxime-prevot","tag-michael-oflaherty","tag-nebojsa-pavkovic","tag-nenad-vujic","tag-ratko-mladic","tag-sanctions-on-russia","tag-sarajevo","tag-serbia","tag-srebrenica","tag-the-hague","tag-ukraine","tag-united-nations-court","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-vladimir-prebilic","tag-war-criminal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1060451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}