Serbia is "fully committed to the European accession process," said European Council President António Costa on a visit to Belgrade where he met Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Tuesday.
Costa said he decided to travel to the Serbian capital to “clarify” Vučić's trip to Moscow's Victory Day parade last week, saying, "We need to have a full alignment in our common foreign and security policy."
Vučić “explained to me it was a moment to celebrate an event from the past," Costa pointed out.
“We cannot rewrite the history, and (we) fully understand that Serbia celebrates (its) liberation," the European Council president said, turning to Russia's ongoing all-out war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
“But we cannot celebrate the liberation 80 years ago and don’t condemn an invasion of another country today.”
"For me, what is most important, is not history, but the present and the future. And the EU, in fact, is not about history, but about the common effort from all member states to overcome their own history, their historic conflicts, their historic battles, wars. And the common will to build a common future together," Costa pointed out.
"And this is why we are here today, to continue to turn difficult pages, and to continue to write together a new story for our future. This is what I want to do with Serbia," he added.
For his part, the Serbian president said that "Serbia and the Serbian people made a huge contribution to the victory over fascism" in World War II, and that he was in the Russian capital to celebrate that fact.
"I talked about it back in October and told everyone I was travelling. I didn't lie to anyone. I announced where I was going, unlike many others who did not announce it, so they ended up there," Vučić explained.
Yet, Vučić was adamant the Western Balkan country's future remains with the 27-member bloc, and hopefully within it. "(Serbia) sees itself now and in the future as on the EU path and as a member of the European Union,” he pointed out.
Vučić has been under significant pressure in Serbia following six months of large student-led anti-corruption protests, which erupted after a train station awning collapsed in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024, killing 16.
Vučić has also been criticised for maintaining close relations with Russia and China while formally saying that he wants Serbia to join the EU.
Serbia relies almost entirely on Russia for energy, and has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Belgrade instead has backed a UN resolution criticising Russia's attack.
From Belgrade, Costa will travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik's ongoing standoff against the state-level government has revived ethnic tensions long after a 1992-1995 war, and stalled pro-EU reforms.
Recently, Albania and Montenegro emerged as leading candidates for EU membership in the Western Balkans, while Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia remain lagging behind.
