Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic did not attend the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
Upon his arrival at the EU-Western Balkans Summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Serbia is a key country in the region, describing Brussels’s attitude toward Serbia as unfair and shameful.
The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, said that the European Union is unfair to Serbia and is preventing its accession because it is a “too proud, self-confident and sovereign” country.
Yes, that must be it – the dastardly EU is not letting Serbia join because the despotic bureaucrats in Brussels are envious of our magnificence, and of our great successes, such as the air quality of the self-confident, key country of Serbia, the economic tiger, and the Leader of the Region, which has reached such high levels of pollution that even the Serbian media managed to spot it. The PM2.5 particles reached levels of “Very Unhealthy”.
How will the European Union ever manage without such a wonderful country, a great place to live a long, healthy life? A place that wastes not, so it wants not, by using waste motor oil for heating?
“According to the latest report by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), about 40,311 tons of oil were placed on the Serbian market in 2023. Of the 40,311 tons, only 440 tons of waste motor oil were processed in Serbia, and 1,660 tons were exported. It means 38,000 tons likely ended up in soil, sewage systems, waterways, or household furnaces…Dejan Lekić from the National Ecological Association, the creator of the xEco app for real-time air pollution monitoring, warned that waste motor oil must never be used as fuel in household stoves, nor discharged into soil or sewage.” – Balkan Green Energy News
And yet we still do it. It’s basically a Serbian custom, a product of our “I don’t give a f*ck” attitude (the Serbian expression is “boli me kurac“).
“In Serbia, approximately 70 percent of the country’s biggest polluters are operating without the required integrated environmental permit, including some of the wealthiest companies, which are effectively shielded by the state’s inaction at the expense of public health and the environment, show the findings presented by the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI)…’Of the roughly 220 operators that were legally required to obtain an integrated permit by December 31, 2024, only 60–70 have actually done so. The remaining 150 continue to operate without any hindrance and in clear violation of the law,’ the RERI analysis shows…some of Serbia’s biggest polluters are also among the country’s richest companies, yet they are effectively exempt from the law while polluting air, water, and soil at the public’s expense.
‘EPS and Zijin are among the five wealthiest companies in Serbia, yet both operate without integrated permits. How is it possible that they can’t afford top experts to secure those permits and implement the best available techniques? Ordinary citizens have to pay taxes and follow the law, but these polluters don’t,’ RERI Program Director Mirko Popović said.” – Balkan Green Energy News
And who is to blame for Serbian problems with Chinese-owned mines and state-owned coal plants? Why, the EU, of course.
Here’s just a glimpse of a few imaginary things that the European Union is blamed for in Serbian political folklore:
◾ EU is pushing Serbia towards China and Russia, because it hasn’t made Serbia a member yet
◾ EU is disrespecting Serbian reforms and its overall Awesomeness
◾ EU bombed Serbian student protesters in 1999, before they were born
◾ EU installed Vučić to power
◾ EU is keeping Vučić in power, since 1993/1998
◾ EU is secretly bringing waste to Serbia to be burned, which causes the epic pollution
◾ EU is participating by inaction in the stifling of Serbian “independent” media
◾ EU is to blame for the Srebrenica genocide, not the Army of Republika Srpska and the Serbian paramilitaries
◾ EU wants to take Kosovo away from Serbia
◾ EU is treating Kosovo unfairly because of Serbia
◾ EU is stealing Serbian children because of their superior genetics (this is an old one, but worth repeating)
One of the answers to why the Serbian commentariat and the general population that creates the political and management class of this country has no desire to join the EU and responds with sulking and pouting at the prospect of having an additional layer of control over its affairs – it could have problems even producing sulfur dioxide-laced dried osmotic apricots from Serbia exported to Greece, or Serbian toast contaminated with mold found in Slovenia and the aflatoxin B1 in soybean meal detected in Spain.
But no need to fret. If we can’t keep our skies clean, at least we can keep them safer. Like Slobodan Milošević used to say: “If we don’t know how to work, at least we know how to fight.”
Serbianism 