“EU membership without veto rights is acceptable for Serbia. The most important aspects for us are the single market, as well as the free movement of goods, people, and capital. These are the key values we wish to realise through EU membership,” Aleksandar Vučić told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Albania has already expressed its willingness to join the EU as a second-tier member, adds FAZ journalist Michael Martens.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama made this offer back in November, following talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“Bring us into Europe, and I am ready to sign an agreement that clearly states we do not seek veto rights,” Rama said in January.
Well, of course, the Vučić’s big tent coalition and a good portion of the electorate would be cool with such an arrangement, as long as there is an EU budget to provide such luxuries as a healthcare system, education, and the rest of that thing called a civilization.
Serbia wouldn’t have ambulance cars without the EU’s (and USAID’s) help, yet it worships Russia.
EU could still be used as a scapegoat to blame for everything that is wrong with Serbia. Just point at “Brussels unelected bureaucrats” et voilà – responsibility deflected. Think of Hungary with Orbanism, just five times worse.
But no one in the European Commission or the EU parliament is that naive. Serbia might lose what it already has if our management class continues down this path.
The European Union could withhold funds from a 1.6 billion euro allocation of loans and grants to Serbia, after Belgrade passed laws that are “eroding trust” in its commitment to the rule of law, European Union (EU) Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said.
The so-called “Mrdić laws” are in question – amendments to core judicial laws that critics say threaten the independence of the country’s judiciary, adopted in an expedited procedure, without public debate or consultations, and bypassing established legislative standards.
As for Rama’s and Vučić’s proposal, Marta Kos rejected it.
In an interview for Politico, Kos dismissed the call, saying she was unsure if Rama and Vucic “know how much you have to deliver if you want to be a part of Schengen or the common market”.
Well, yes, that’s a very good way to point out that those two represent electorates of entitled dunces.
Recent trucker protests in Serbia and Bosnia, when trucking companies and their employees asked for – get this – an exemption from Schengen rules, are a good example of how utterly detached from reality a lot of people here are. Balkans truly is like a Russian military operation – so special.
Truck drivers from Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina said they will block freight border terminals toward the Schengen Area on Jan. 26 to protest the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System, which they say threatens their ability to work. We believe this is a very cunning intention of the European Union to take our most qualified workforce and take all our drivers,” said Djordjije Ljesnjak of the Montenegrin Transporters’ Association.
Yes, that’s what this is, the dastardly EU wants to grab our intellectual elite – the truck drivers, who wouldn’t want The Best & The Brightests brought into their fold.
The EC was not amused and flat-out rejected their demands, which is to be commended.
The EES border check implementation caused the vox populi a lot of wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth, and calls for – not making this up – banning traffic originating from the EU into and through Serbia. “Reciprocity, damn it, take that Europe!” Yeah, I’m sure they would be devastated.
And how did we come to this?
“Have you ever seen an expensive Persian carpet woven with gold, but it only has one hole? That hole in the European Union, that will be us!”, back in 2007, the then deputy president of the Serbian Radical Party, Tomislav Nikolić said, who was Vučić’s party comrade for many years.
When Radicals morphed into Progressives, Mr. Nikolić was elected president by the local revanchist electorate, ready to cut its nose to spite the Euro-face. Fast forward to now, and the student popular front members’ parents are having buyer’s remorse for voting for Nikolić & Co.
Guess voting for becoming a black hole and then getting what you asked for doesn’t sit right, huh? Serbia is the ultimate in “you asked for it, you got it”, but doesn’t seem to get that our homemade problems are not the EU’s responsibility and that no one has to bend over for our whims.
But it is hard to imagine that anything will change soon in such perceptions of the Serbian electorate and their representatives.
I won’t argue with this assessment of the Serbian electorate one iota. Serbia is the ultimate in “you asked for it, you got it”. Re-elect the demagogues from the 90s to “eliminate corruption, screw over the EU, and preserve Kosovo”, and you end up “enjoying” the Slaanesh of paternalist autocracy.
However, this…
…deserves some unpacking.
So what’s wrong with this notion? See, without the EU aid, Serbia doesn’t lose “investments, travel, education” – it loses basic civilization like ambulance cars and electricity. But for some reason, even the pro-EU crowd here fails to mention that without the EU, Serbia LARPs Mad Max movies.
And what is this nonsense about “illegal employment”? You can’t just hop over to Austria, work until the Schengen 90-day limit, without eventually getting kicked out. Many tried this, but it doesn’t really work out. The EU doesn’t “provide” ways of swindling someone.
The way this tweet (which is representative of how many supposedly pro-democracy people here think) presents it is that if we keep on doing the whole autocracy thing, the only damage is losing those Euro unis and no more tourism. Reality check people know that without the EU, we lose running water.
Makes you wonder, are these folks just that detached from reality that they don’t seem to be able to make those connections and honestly think that healthcare and energy system are somehow a given, or is it that there is a constant coziying up to the alt-right crowd by claiming that their policies are legitimate and won’t hurt if implemented. Stop playing nice with nationalists – they don’t care if we drown in pollution and have electricity restrictions like in the 1990s. They don’t give a damn about war atrocities that were committed, so rundown schools don’t bother them.
So, is there even a will in Serbia to meet the EU standards and join as a full member?
The Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Serbia, Andreas von Beckerath, shared the results of a poll on Friday showing that 39.8 percent of Serbian citizens support EU membership, and said that he views the results as a “solid majority in favor of Serbia joining the EU.”
Ah, the exaltation of having his low expectations exceeded. 33.8 percent are opposed (as in definitely vote NO) in this latest finding, which is a noticeable decline from over 50 percent last summer at the height of the anti-EU hysteria coming from both opposed political tribes here.
Yeah, but no. In the CEP – European Policy Survey that he is quoting, the respondents had more to say on this matter, and my take is that this is the reason why Serbia has no chance to become an EU member in any foreseeable future. So let’s start unpacking this, shall we?
◾ 41.8 percent believe the EU seeks to integrate Serbia primarily to gain access to lithium and other natural resources
Yes, in the transactional minds of the Serbian populace, the EU Harkonnens never considered Serbia a potential member until the spice lithium was in play. Serbia is oh-so-special, no lithium ANYWHERE, only here. Apart from Finland, Germany, Czechia, and so on. But it makes us feel special, so we’ll be against the EU so they don’t steal our precious lithium.
◾ 43.9 percent of citizens believe it is more important to the EU that Serbia imposes sanctions on Russia than for it to become a developed democracy
Certainly, the evil European Russophobia that wants to ruin our dear brothers and allies from Russia and rob them of their Greatness. It also feeds the lie that Brussels made Serbia into a paternalist autocracy by remote control, when in fact, people here kept stubbornly voting for it until they got it again.
◾ Less than one third of citizens believe that the EU applies the same rules to all candidate countries and consider the EU to be a reliable partner for Serbia
Well, of course, they feel that way. In Serbia, laws are for “enemies”, not the Chosen Ones. So we think everyone else operates in such a manner.
◾ What we have here is the same old “we’d join the EU, if they bend over for us, on our terms”. The recent rebukes coming from Marta Kos tell that such a concept ain’t exactly working.
An electorate like this will produce a stream of parochial, anti-European parties. Stop focusing on Vučić, he’s not an evil wizard, but just the head of a long-standing, very popular autocratic movement that came to prominence here back in the late 1980s. They existed way before Orbans, Putins, and Trumps. It’s kinda our thing. EU not so much.
Serbianism 