![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/logo-euronews-grey-6-180x22.svg.svg+xml\"){kind=logo}
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\nADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Serbia is “fully committed with the European accession process,” said European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa on a visit to Belgrade.<\/p>\n
Costa met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 amid criticism of Vu\u010di\u0107’s trip to Moscow’s Victory Day parade last week, adding that \u201ca lot of people asked me not to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/icon-cross-10x10-grey-6.svg.svg+xml\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
But he said he decided to travel to the Serbian capital to \u201cclarify\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107’s visit to Moscow, saying, “We need to have a full alignment in our common foreign and security policy.”<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107, Costa said, \u201cexplained to me it was a moment to celebrate an event from the past.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot rewrite the history, and (we) fully understand that Serbia celebrates (its) liberation,” Costa said, turning to Russia’s ongoing all-out war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut we cannot celebrate the liberation 80 years ago and don\u2019t condemn an invasion of another country today.\u201d<\/p>\n
“You have our word,” Vu\u010di\u0107 assured Costa, “that we will make an additional effort to get closer to the European Union faster.” <\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 has been under significant pressure in Serbia following six months of large student-led anti-corruption protests. These erupted after a train station awning collapsed in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024, killing 16, which many in the country blamed on graft in infrastructure construction.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 has also been criticised for maintaining close relations with Russia and China while formally saying that he wants Serbia to join the EU.<\/p>\n
Serbia relies almost entirely on Russia for energy, and has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Belgrade instead has backed a UN resolution criticising Russia’s attack.<\/p>\n
From Belgrade, Costa will travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik’s ongoing standoff against the state-level government has revived ethnic tensions long after a 1992-1995 war, and stalled pro-EU reforms.<\/p>\n
Recently, Albania and Montenegro emerged as leading candidates for EU membership in the Western Balkans, while Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia remain lagging behind.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT Serbia is “fully committed with the European accession process,” said European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[6502,11783,2000,299,5187,1699,6567,15065],"class_list":{"0":"post-98201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-aleksandar-vucic","9":"tag-antonio-costa","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-serbia","15":"tag-students"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114500889802823938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98201","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=98201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}