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Vucic: EU punishes Serbs because they are not obedient enough

Serbian president expressed hope that Hungary will put the issue on the agenda again on December 11

Dec 5, 2024 15:19 203

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the European Union is punishing the Serbs for not being "obedient enough", Serbian media reported.

"President (of Republika Srpska Milorad) Dodik is right - for us Serbs, different rules have always applied, everything that others could do, we didn't do, everything that others were allowed, for us it is not (...) We cannot change the world, but we can be honest with our people, and also with those who invented special principles for the Serbs and punished them only because they were not obedient enough, said Vucic yesterday after his meeting with the President of the Bosnian Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik during a business forum in Switzerland.

The reason for the words of the Serbian president was the fact that at the beginning of the week the EU member states failed to reach an agreement on the opening of cluster 3 in the negotiations with Serbia.

The three Baltic republics, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Croatia and Bulgaria, voted against the opening of cluster 3, Vucic said yesterday.

The Serbian president expressed hope that Hungary will again put the issue on the agenda on December 11, writes in "Politics".

"We'll see if it happens. Our Hungarian friends will again put the issue on the agenda next week. We'll see. (...) Thank them!", Vucic also told journalists in Zurich.

"If God asks me what we have done to the Bulgarians, I can neither say nor explain. I think I understand what the real reasons are, never mind that you will never hear them. And for the Croats, I understand everything, I don't have a big problem understanding it", Vucic also said in a special interview for the national Serbian TV station RTS this morning.

In October, the Croatian MEP Tonino Pikula was appointed as the rapporteur for Serbia's progress towards full EU membership. Serbian President Vucic then said that Pikula had a bad attitude towards Serbs and would not talk to him.

At the end of October, the European Commission's report on Serbia's progress noted that the country technically meets the conditions for opening cluster 3 "Competitiveness and inclusive growth", which covers a total of 8 chapters. In the document, however, the commission recommended that the Serbian authorities comply with the EU's common foreign policy and impose sanctions on Russia because of the war in Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the official representatives of Serbia have declared that they do not want to comply with the EU's recommendations regarding the Russian Federation.

"If we impose sanctions on Russia and recognize Kosovo, all doors will open for us. No, I'm not interested!", Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday after a meeting with the new President of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

On the same day, the new EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaia Callas, spoke in Brussels with the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia for the first time since taking office.

After the talks, Kalas wrote in Aix that the path to EU membership is possible only by implementing the agreements reached for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Serbia does not recognize the announced in 2008. independence of its former province of Kosovo. The two countries are conducting a dialogue to normalize their relations with the mediation of the EU.