Costa and Vucic in Belgrade: three conditions before Tivat summit
European Council President Antonio Costa visited Belgrade ahead of the Tivat summit and set out three priorities; Vucic said Serbia stays on its EU path.
- Antonio Costa visited Belgrade on 4 June, a day before the EU and Western Balkans summit in Tivat.
- Costa set out three priorities: good neighbourly relations, alignment with EU foreign policy, and rule-of-law reforms.
- Vucic said he does not believe the EU is blackmailing Serbia and that the country remains on its European path.
- He announced the adoption of electoral and media laws within the next two weeks.
European Council President Antonio Costa met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on 4 June, just a day before the summit of the European Union and the Western Balkans in Tivat. According to statements from both sides, the talks focused on what Brussels expects from Serbia on its path towards membership.
As reported by Radio Free Europe and Politika, Costa set out three priorities. The first concerns good neighbourly relations and regional cooperation, including the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the implementation of the Ohrid agreement. The second is alignment with the EU’s foreign and security policy. The third covers reforms in the rule of law and media freedoms. For his part, Vucic said Serbia remains committed to membership, but expressed frustration that not a single negotiating cluster has been opened in five years.
What exactly did Costa ask for?
The three priorities the European Council president laid out represent, in his words, a clear trajectory towards membership. Costa described that trajectory as demanding but certain, leaving the responsibility for the pace with Belgrade.
“The road ahead of you is demanding, but the trajectory is clear” (Antonio Costa).
On the Serbian side, the emphasis fell on what Vucic sees as inconsistency from Brussels. He claims the delay in opening clusters is not the result of Serbian failings but of a wider context, above all the war in Ukraine, which he says changed the dynamics of enlargement. Those assessments are the Serbian president’s own view, not a joint conclusion from the meeting.
Vucic rejected the interpretation that Brussels is conditioning Serbia in a way that could be described as pressure.
“I do not think the European Union is blackmailing us; they say what they think, we say what we think” (Aleksandar Vucic).
What comes next before Tivat?
Ahead of the summit itself, Vucic announced concrete steps in two areas Brussels has singled out for years as crucial. According to him, within the next two weeks Serbia should adopt two laws and form one regulatory body:
- a law on the financing of political organisations;
- a law on the participation of officials in election campaigns;
- a new composition of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media.
In the context of the EU’s assessment of Serbia, these moves read as a response to objections about electoral conditions and media regulation. Whether the announced deadlines will be met, and how the reforms will look in practice, remains to be established once the proposals reach the National Assembly.
The Tivat summit brings together leaders of the Union and the region, and the visit to Belgrade on the eve of the gathering signals that Brussels wants its messages about conditions to be clear before the delegations meet on the Montenegrin coast. For Serbia, the question is whether the announced legislative package will be enough to unblock the stalled negotiations.
Do you think the announced electoral and media laws will change the pace of Serbia’s negotiations with the European Union?
