Babis in Belgrade: Serbia Belongs in Schengen and the EU
The Czech premier arrived for a two-day visit with an economic delegation of some thirty companies, backing Serbia's European path while leaving the toughest questions to the European Council.
- Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is on a two-day official visit to Serbia, an economic mission joined by about 30 Czech companies.
- Babis said Serbia belongs in Schengen and the European Union and backed an accession process in which 22 chapters have been opened and only two closed.
- He said Kosovo and Serbia's relations with Croatia should be settled by EU leaders at the European Council.
- The delegation plans to tour the EXPO 2027 site, where the Czech pavilion will be devoted to space and cosmonauts.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis arrived in Belgrade for a two-day official visit, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlicek and a delegation of some thirty Czech companies. The trip was conceived as an economic mission, yet from its first day it took on a clearly political dimension, as the Czech premier weighed in on Serbia’s European path, the status of Kosovo, and Belgrade’s relations with Zagreb.
Babis said Serbia belongs in the Schengen area and the European Union, and voiced support for an accession process in which 22 negotiating chapters have so far been opened and only two closed. President Aleksandar Vucic, who hosted his guest at a working dinner, stressed the traditionally good ties between the two countries. For a sitting prime minister of a member state, such open backing for enlargement is not an everyday message, and that is the visit’s chief value.
Why is Babis leaving the hardest questions to the European Council?
The Czech premier made clear he would not discuss Kosovo or Serbia’s relations with Croatia with Vucic, because, in his words, these are matters for European Union leaders to resolve at the European Council. With that, Babis drew a firm line: the bilateral frame in Belgrade stays reserved for the economy and the accession process, while the toughest open questions are pushed up to the highest European level.
That move reads two ways. On one hand, it spares the visit from topics that would turn it into a diplomatic risk and leaves room for concrete agreements. On the other, shifting Kosovo and relations with Zagreb to the European Council means, in practice, that the key questions are deferred to a forum where Serbia does not sit as an equal member. Support for the European path thus comes with a plain limit on what the guest can offer in Belgrade.
What is Prague bringing to Belgrade?
The economic weight of the visit is confirmed by the makeup of the delegation. Alongside Babis and Havlicek, some thirty Czech companies came to Serbia, placing the trip among the larger business missions of the year. Havlicek announced that the delegation would tour the EXPO 2027 site, the first specialized exhibition of its kind in the Western Balkans, and that the Czech pavilion would be devoted to space and cosmonautics, with Prague set to send its first cosmonaut into space next year.
For Serbia, the message that it belongs in Schengen and the Union, spoken by the premier of a member state, is a valuable foreign-policy signal at a moment when enlargement has slowed. The question is how far those words, tempered by caution over Kosovo and Croatia, will be matched by concrete steps in Brussels. Is support for Serbia’s European path worth more when it comes with a clear condition that the hardest questions be settled at the European, not the bilateral, table?
