Vucic Will Attend EU Summit in Tivat After Boycott
After skipping the Brussels gathering, Serbia's president is heading to the EU and Western Balkans summit in Tivat on 5 June, he says, because von der Leyen invited him personally.
- Vucic will attend the EU and Western Balkans summit in Tivat on 5 June, the first such gathering held in Montenegro.
- He decided to go after a personal invitation from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
- Serbia sent no representative to the previous summit in Brussels, a move widely read as a boycott.
- Montenegro and Albania are advancing fast, while Brussels still faults Belgrade on rule of law and the media.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will, after all, attend the European Union and Western Balkans summit held in Tivat on 5 June, following Serbia’s recent no-show at the gathering in Brussels. Vucic said he made the decision after a personal invitation from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reversing the line he had signalled until recently.
The Tivat summit is the first of its kind to be held in Montenegro, hosted by the country’s president, Jakov Milatovic. More than 30 leaders are expected, among them French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa and High Representative Kaja Kallas. For Belgrade the appearance is all the more delicate because Serbia had no representative at the previous Brussels meeting, a step that was read at home and across the region as a boycott.
“As for Montenegro, I am going because Ursula von der Leyen called me. Otherwise I would not go, I am a free man,” Vucic said, explaining why he changed his mind about travelling to Tivat.
Why did Vucic change his mind after Brussels?
Analysts read the turn after the boycott as Belgrade’s attempt to repair its standing with partners just as the region enters a sensitive phase of enlargement. Albania has, according to European Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, entered the final stage of accession talks, while Montenegro is described as the most serious candidate for the next membership. Serbia, meanwhile, is seen as treading water and increasingly having to explain why it lags behind its neighbours.
The European Commission keeps raising three kinds of objections with Belgrade:
- insufficient progress on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary,
- pressure on the media and limited room for free reporting,
- a foreign policy that is not aligned with the Union’s common positions.
The mood before the summit is captured by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who declared: “We are EU fanatics.” That tone from a candidate racing toward membership sharpens the contrast with Serbia’s position, where the European path has for years run in parallel with a pronounced policy of balancing between West and East.
What does Tivat mean for Serbian foreign policy?
Going to Tivat gives Vucic a chance to repeat his message of commitment to membership before more than 30 leaders, but it also exposes him to comparison with candidates that have moved more concretely. Montenegro is using the gathering to confirm its frontrunner status, Albania to show results in opening chapters, and Belgrade to try to explain why its process has slowed.
The decision to travel to Tivat after staying away from Brussels shows how much personal channels still outweigh formal formats. The question left for readers is a simple one: is Vucic’s appearance in Tivat a genuine turn toward Brussels, or merely a courtesy to one interlocutor while the substantive reforms keep waiting?
