Picula: Lift Vucic's Immunity After Mladic Funeral

Tonino Picula, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, on Tuesday, September 8, a day after Ratko Mladic’s funeral in Belgrade, became the first official to publicly demand that Brussels lift what he calls President Aleksandar Vucic’s immunity from sanctions. Unlike earlier reactions from media outlets and former officials, this time the call came from the person whose name is on the European Parliament’s official progress report on Serbia, which gives his words weight in the membership talks and bears directly on how Belgrade will be assessed in the coming months.

Picula is a Croatian member of the European Parliament from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group and has for some time tracked the European Union’s relations with Serbia as the country’s lead rapporteur. Speaking to reporters, he said the presence of state institution representatives, military officials and government members at Mladic’s funeral sent a clear political message. He noted that Mladic was convicted by a final verdict of genocide in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

“Serbia cannot simultaneously claim that European Union membership is its strategic goal while tolerating, or institutionally observing, the glorification of people convicted of the gravest war crimes,” Picula said. He added that a European future requires a society capable of confronting its own past, not glorifying its darkest protagonists.

“A European future requires that a society and a state be capable of confronting the past, not glorifying its darkest protagonists,” said the European Parliament’s rapporteur for relations with Serbia.

What Exactly Does Picula Want From Brussels?

Picula’s central message is that the burial of a convicted war criminal must have consequences for the European Commission’s existing course toward Vucic. “The burial of the war criminal Ratko Mladic, finally convicted of genocide, really must fundamentally change the European Union’s years-long policy of appeasing Aleksandar Vucic,” he said, adding that this applies in particular to what he described as a Commission that has so far been benevolent, and to certain influential member states.

As additional grounds for a change of course, he cited Vucic’s trip to Moscow last year for a military parade, the Banjska case in northern Kosovo, laws he says undermine the independence of the prosecution, and violations of democratic standards after the Novi Sad tragedy. In his view, Mladic’s funeral is the latest in a series of episodes that should push Brussels from what he calls a phase of shock into a phase of concrete action.

“His immunity from sanctions must finally be lifted, and the policy of appeasing the regime abandoned,” Picula said, arguing that such a government must not remain, as he put it, an untouchable and somewhat privileged partner of Brussels in the Western Balkans.

The message comes as lawmakers from four major political groups in the European Parliament are already pressing the bloc’s executive: they have sent a letter to Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos demanding a response from the Commission, while a growing number of MEPs are openly calling for Serbia’s accession process to be frozen or suspended. Portal Srpske has previously reported that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa called the funeral shocking and said the Commission was considering further steps, though no official statement on possible measures has followed.

Is There Still Room for Diplomacy?

Asked whether room for diplomatic dialogue still exists, and whether Belgrade might be expected to publicly renounce the glorification of Mladic, Picula was not optimistic. “Vucic has had 12 years to deliver what he promised to do in Serbia. None of that happened,” he said, also pointing to the sharp language the Serbian president used to comment on the enlargement commissioner’s canceled visit. “The room for diplomacy is narrowing,” he concluded.

For Serbia, the most concrete question in the coming days is whether von der Leyen will follow Marta Kos’s example and cancel her own planned visit to Belgrade, and how she will address the Serbian government’s moves in her annual State of the Union address, scheduled for next week in Strasbourg. That speech will also determine whether the pressure from part of the European Parliament on the Commission produces a concrete response or remains at the level of letters and statements.

Picula also pointed to consequences for the wider region: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign minister, Elmedin Konakovic, withdrew nearly all of his country’s diplomatic staff from Belgrade, while leading political figures from Republika Srpska attended the funeral. “The burial of a convicted war criminal must have consequences for relations in southeastern Europe, which is still far from having absorbed the consequences of the aggression,” he said, noting that Bosnia and Herzegovina is under additional strain because it is itself in a pre-election period. He argued that a tougher policy from Brussels toward Belgrade is necessary because, in his words, Vucic’s Serbia remains the main destabilizing force in the region.

As of publication, the European Commission had not said whether Mladic’s funeral would have any practical consequences for Serbia’s status in the accession process or for its stance toward Vucic personally. Based on everything Picula has said, an answer could come as early as next week in Strasbourg.