Serbia sees an absence of assist from Brussels for its membership, President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has mentioned that the accelerated path to EU membership supplied to Ukraine demonstrates that political assist for Serbia’s personal membership bid “has by no means been there for us.”
“I’ve nothing in opposition to Ukrainians,” Vucic advised the Monetary Instances on Sunday. Nonetheless, he added that the EU’s stage of assist for Kiev’s membership software “exhibits us [that such political support] has by no means been there for us.”
Ukraine utilized for membership within the European Union final February, and was formally granted candidate standing 4 months later. In her annual State of the Union handle on Wednesday, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen declared that Ukraine would “full our union,” and that “it’s clearly in Europe’s strategic and safety pursuits” for Ukraine, in addition to the Western Balkans, to affix the bloc.
Serbia, in contrast, utilized to affix the EU in 2009 and needed to wait till 2012 to obtain candidate standing and 2014 for accession talks to start. Belgrade’s software has since stalled, with Brussels pressuring Vucic to sanction Russia and acknowledge the breakaway province of Kosovo to spice up its possibilities of membership.
Vucic argued to the Monetary Instances that his nation was presently “in a lot better form than Romania and Bulgaria have been in 2007 once they joined the EU.” He then urged that the bloc could quickly discover itself financially unable to soak up any new members.
“We [have heard] about 2025, now it’s 2030 … it’s seven years,” he advised the British newspaper. “Who is aware of what is going to occur in seven years? The absorption energy of the EU will not be larger than it was. You will have ten web contributors and 17 international locations which can be taking their cash. Neither want to have extra members on their fee roll.”
The 2030 date was talked about by European Council President Charles Michel throughout a convention in Slovenia final month. With 5 western Balkan nations and Kosovo all vying for membership, Michel didn’t state which international locations can be prioritized, solely that some accessions would start earlier than 2030.
In the meantime, regardless of von der Leyen’s public assist for Ukraine’s membership, EU officers reportedly view rampant corruption within the nation as a possible roadblock to accession. Moreover, an escalating dispute between Ukraine and its Japanese European neighbors over grain imports may see these international locations withhold their assist for Kiev’s software.
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