The Commissioner of the European Union for Enlargement, Marta Kos, has stated that the EU has suspended all funding for Serbia due to the regression found in the judicial system and the country’s geopolitical orientation.
Kos emphasized that Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership for more than a decade, but has shown backwardness in key areas such as democracy, freedom of speech and independence of the press.
“Today, Serbia is very polarized. It has been a candidate for membership in the European Union for more than 10 years. Unfortunately, we have seen it regress, especially when it comes to values such as laws, democracy, freedom of speech and, especially, freedom of the press. There is a future for Serbia in the European Union, but the course must be reversed or expressed more strongly in the actions of politicians,” said Kos.
She underlined that one of the main problems is Serbia’s geopolitical orientation, stressing that a candidate country must comply 100% with the EU’s foreign and security policy, Serbian media quote.
Kos confirmed that payments under the “Growth Plan” have been suspended until Serbia corrects the problems in the court.
“We have a rule that a country that wants to become a member of the EU must comply 100% with the EU’s foreign and security policy. This means, you cannot sit on two chairs. At some point, Serbia will have to decide what is more important for further development. At the moment, we have suspended all payments to Serbia under the development plan, because we again see regression in the judicial system. Until this is corrected, the country will not be able to receive financial support from the EU”, said Kos.
