EU enlargement commissioner urges Serbia to push forward reform, says protesting citizens want same

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European Union’s enlargement commissioner on Tuesday urged Serbia’s new government to push forward democratic reforms needed for membership in the bloc, saying that the Balkan nation’s protesting citizens have been seeking similar changes.

Marta Kos spoke after meeting Serbia’s new Prime Minister Djuro Macut, a political novice who took office earlier this month facing monthslong anti-corruption demonstrations triggered by a train station concrete canopy collapse that killed 16 people in November.

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Many in Serbia blamed the crash in the northern city of Novi Sad on alleged rampant corruption in the government’s infrastructure deals with China, which, along with Russia, is a close ally of Belgrade despite its formal intention to join the EU. The student-led protests have been demanding justice for the victims and the rule of law in the country firmly led by ruling populists.

Kos said that the EU has a “once in a generation opportunity to complete the unification of Europe” and wants to embrace Serbia and other candidate countries in the Western Balkans. But she said Serbia must first reform the judiciary in order to fight corruption, ensure freedom of the press and free and fair elections.

“Without these changes Serbia cannot progress in the European path and I know that what we are asking for is very close to the demands of the citizens who are and were protesting on the streets of Serbia,” Kos said. “A democratic Serbia inside the European Union is possible and it is what citizens of Serbia ask for and deserve.”

Kos also met Tuesday with Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic, who has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms, including pressure on the protesting students. In the latest incident on Monday in Novi Sad, police used batons and pepper spray while pushing protesters away from a sports faculty building. Several people were injured.

“I stressed our full readiness to speed up the reform,” Vucic said in a statement posted on social media, expressing hope that Serbia will “use the existing momentum and open a new phase in the process of European integration.”

Western Balkan countries are in different phases of accession. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022 encouraged Europe’s leaders to push for the countries to join the bloc, fearing instability.

Many pro-democracy Serbs, however, are disappointed with what they view as the EU’s lukewarm response to Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian ways. A group of students have cycled to Strasbourg, France, while others are currently running toward Brussels to draw the EU’s attention to their struggle for justice and the rule of law in Serbia.

“I am going to support Serbia and its citizens in their European aspirations,” Kos said. “And we expect and hope that the government of Serbia will do its part too.”