The European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Pitsula, said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is doing “nothing” to move Serbia closer to EU membership.

Pizzulla pointed out that Serbia is lagging behind in implementing “the so-called fundamental requirements, such as a functioning democracy, a constitutional state, the rule of law, effective fight against corruption and organized crime, as well as full media freedom.”

He stressed that Serbia is not complying with either the EU's foreign and security policy or the specific condition for normalizing relations with Kosovo.

“When all this is put on one side of the equation, EU membership cannot be on the other,” the rapporteur told the Croatian news portal Telegram.

According to him, Vučić is just one of the “accomplices” in this situation because, despite internal protests and pressure from part of the EU, he has managed to find a “modus operandi with the stabilocracy in the EU institutions,” which formally support the enlargement policy but do not exert any real pressure on him.

“This situation of facade democracy suits him perfectly, but we will see how long he can maintain it,” Pitsula added. He believes that Vučić can still feel comfortable because “the EU is an ATM for him.” The rapporteur emphasized that the EU accounts for 60% of Serbia's trade and is its largest financier, without whose funds “the country would collapse.”

Regarding the other Western Balkan countries, Pitsula pointed out that Montenegro is formally the leader in the process, but Albania could quickly catch up because, in his opinion, Tirana clearly has the political will to work for its membership. He warned that Podgorica should be concerned about the so-called “duplication with Vucic's Serbia,” which "certainly has no great interest in seeing Montenegro's progress towards EU membership. And because of the strong pro-Russian and pro-Serbian component of the political scene, Montenegro is managing to block itself on its path to the Union. | BGNES