Jeremić: EU-Western Balkans Relations Need a Reset

The President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development Vuk Jeremić participated in the international forum entitled “Europe and the Minotaur: Geopolitics Between Myth and Reality,” held in Kőszeg, Hungary on June 24^th, 2024.

Jeremić said that Serbia’s membership in the EU is no longer possible, considering Brussels’ latest moves to formalize its conditioning of Serbia’s accession on the status of Kosovo and Metohija. He argued in favor of resetting and enhancing economic cooperation between the Western Balkans and the EU, stressing the need for the latter to respect the military neutrality of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Jeremić said it would be completely delusional to talk about an “elimination of Russian and Turkish influence in the Balkans,” as their influence has been built over centuries.

“If we analyze the history of the EU accession process of Western Balkan countries, two key events from 2008 and the processes that followed are crucial: the unilateral declaration of independence of ‘Kosovo,’ encouraged by the United States and influential European countries, and the global economic crisis, after which internal frictions began to appear within the EU. This was followed by the migrant crisis, Brexit, and other events that made the EU no longer look like a dream project where the sky was the limit. I believe the EU expansion ended in 2013 with Croatia’s accession,” said Jeremić.

Jeremić emphasized that he believes Serbia will never recognize the self-proclaimed “Kosovo” as an independent state, regardless of who is in power in Belgrade.                                                   

Arber Vokrri, an official of Priština’s Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, stated during the panel that “Kosovo’s” declared independence is a reality, to which Jeremić responded that the reality is that this independence is not recognized by the majority of the world’s sovereign states. “That is a reality, just as it is a reality that Serbia will never recognize ‘Kosovo,’ and this should be taken into account when discussing relations in the Western Balkans. But this does not have to be the end of the world. Serbs and Albanians can and should work more on reconciliation and improving relations between the two nations,” Jeremić concluded.

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