Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic stated on Monday in Berlin, during the 10th anniversary of the Berlin Process summit, that Serbia remains committed to joining the EU.
Speaking to Serbian reporters, Vucevic expressed that Germany seemed eager to completely restart the project and push it forward, and that many interesting ideas were discussed at the conference.
Serbia signed two documents in Berlin—an agreement regarding access to higher education within the Western Balkans, and a declaration in support of a shared regional market.
“These are documents we have no objections to, but Serbia always has reservations because we view the Western Balkans as ‘5+1’, and not as six states. These are our comments and our strict boundaries we always highlight,” Vucevic added.
He stated that Serbia is committed to joining the EU as its main strategic goal.
“Some speakers always mention the Russians or the Chinese, that always happens, but my impression was that there was no negative context, but that Germany’s desire was to send a message to everyone that they should be a part of the EU.”
In response to a journalist’s remark about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dedicating a large portion of his speech to the relationship between Belgrade and Pristina, urging further discussion and final resolution of ongoing disputes, Vucevic said that two more speakers had also commented on this topic, but it was not the main subject of discussion.
“(Pristina’s PM Albin) Kurti made a remark about Beijing and BRICS, but there was nothing dramatic about this issue,” Vucevic noted.
He highlighted the substantial recognition Serbia’s economic achievements and infrastructure projects received and mentioned that the signing of a memorandum with North Macedonia to build a gas interconnector to Greece was well-received at the summit.
“We also have an offer from Romania. I insisted on Corridor 10, (Hungarian) PM (Viktor) Orban noted that too, and (North Macedonian) PM (Hristijan) Mickoski joined in,” he said.
When asked whether Germany’s stance towards Serbia had changed, Vucevic said he believed that Chancellor Scholz wanted to show that Germany would like to see the Western Balkans integrated into the EU.
