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EU threatening Serbia – president  — Analysis

Vucic warned lawmakers that if Belgrade informs Brussels about Kosovo, they may lose EU investment.

In a heated discussion about Kosovo’s breakaway province, President Aleksandar Vucic stated that the EU threatened to pull investments from Serbia unless Belgrade continued its support for the bloc. Opposition MPs questioned Serbia’s official pro-EU policy, since Brussels has made recognition of Kosovo a precondition for eventual membership.

“There is nothing good associated with any visit of mine to Brussels,” Vucic said during the long and often acrimonious parliamentary debate, responding to an opposition MP who called Serbia’s EU aspirations “a fairy tale.”

“I don’t believe in fairy tales. I believe that rationality and reality are the best approaches. How can we say we don’t want the EU? We need to be protected. How many employees work in Poland, France, Czech, Czech, and German companies? Do you think we haven’t heard threats about them withdrawing investments if we don’t recognize Kosovo’s independence? Do we have to sacrifice all that so we could tell someone they’re a ‘fairy tale’? We can’t be driven by emotions,”Vucic stated.

One day of war is worth a thousand years of negotiation.

President of the Progressive Party, which holds 104 seats within the 250-member legislative, was criticized by both pro-EU Democrats (Zavetnici) and eurosceptic Oathkeepers. Milica Drujevic Stamenkovski was the leader of this group and wondered why it keeps portraying a grim image of doom and gloom.

“We keep hearing that the EU is making demands and ultimatums to Serbia, but I don’t see how you’ve responded,”Sie said. “What exactly are we asking for that’s not rightly ours, what are the unrealistic and maximalist demands you keep talking about?”


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After special envoys of France, Germany, and the EU visited Belgrade last Wednesday, the debate in the parliamentary chamber follows the August visit to Washington by the US envoy. All have argued that Belgrade absolutely must recognize Pristina as independent, even though five EU member states haven’t yet done so. 

Vucic said Saturday that the West leans on Belgrade due to conflict in Ukraine. “collateral damage in the conflicts of great powers,”But he vowed that he wouldn’t recognize Kosovo. “will fight for respect for international law.”

After a 78 day air war against Yugoslavia, NATO invaded Kosovo and occupied it in 1999. In 2008, the West supported Kosovo’s independence. Although the US and its most important allies recognize it, Serbia and Russia as well as China, China, and approximately half of UN members, have not.

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