The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has told Serbia that it faces a “strategic choice” over its future direction, weeks after President Aleksandar Vucic defied Brussels by attending Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Speaking during a visit to Belgrade, Kallas said Serbia’s European future depends on the values it chooses to uphold. She described her discussions with Vucic about the Moscow trip as “extensive,” adding that she could not understand why it was necessary to stand alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, given the war in Ukraine.
Vucic has defended the visit as part of maintaining traditional friendships with fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian Russia, while still pursuing EU membership. Serbia relies heavily on Russian energy and has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.
Kallas stressed that EU membership remains a strategic goal for Serbia, but emphasised that reforms are needed in media freedom, anti-corruption, and electoral processes. She noted that hundreds of thousands of protesters have been demanding such changes following a train station tragedy that killed 16 people and sparked anti-corruption demonstrations.
The EU chief also travelled to Kosovo, urging normalisation of relations between the two neighbours as fundamental for their European future. She plans to invite representatives from Belgrade and Pristina to Brussels for talks.
Kallas expressed commitment to encouraging Western Balkan countries to seize the current momentum for EU enlargement, which has been revived since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
