Serbia and its integration into Europe
By: Francisco Javier Ocaña Márquez
Tags: Europe, International Relations, Politics, Serbia, European Union

Following the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 90s, Milosevic remained in power until he lost the elections to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, led by Kostunica, in 2000. A conservative anti-communist politician, as well as distrustful of the West, he defined himself ideologically as a Gaullist, characterised by strong patriotism, a presidential figure with broad powers and relative independence from international and supranational organisations, and a rejection of classical economic liberalism, opting instead for state-planned capitalism.

During Kostunica’s term in office, international relations were normalised by bringing the country back into the UN and closer to the European Union. The government undertook a series of highly demanded economic and fiscal reforms that led to a buoyant average annual growth of 6.1% between 2000–2008. In 2003 the Constitutional Charter was approved, renaming Yugoslavia the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. It provided for a constitutional mechanism for dissolving the union, which was exercised by Montenegro in 2005, gaining independence on 3 June 2006. Two years later, on 17 February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed its independence.

Shortly afterwards, in May of the same year, elections were held and the winner was the Social Democrat Mirko Cvetković, who opted for a decisive rapprochement with the European Union and submitted his application for membership on 22 December 2009. Since then Serbia has been making genuine efforts to meet the requirements imposed by the conditions of accession, among which is the normalisation of relations with Kosovo, which made a major step forward in 2013 when both entities reached an agreement to initiate institutional state-to-state relations.

Today the current Prime Minister since 17 June 2017 is Ana Brnabić, the first woman, as well as the first gay person to hold executive power in the Serbian Republic, a true declaration of the progressive nature of the Serbian people.

However, Serbia is being harmed by new measures imposed on the candidate countries, promoted mainly by French President Emmanuel Macron, which lengthen the accession process and put an extra burden on the governments of these countries. The Serbian government judges this new treatment as unfair and dishonest, as the recent Member States Romania and Bulgaria entered 2007 with far fewer controls. Moreover, Serbia’s role in managing the migration crisis of 2015 has been very helpful, actively collaborating with the European Union, much more so than other Member States such as Hungary or Poland. This makes them feel undervalued, which increases their sights on Russia.

On the other hand, the People’s Republic of China is investing huge amounts of money in Serbia’s infrastructure, in its aim to complete the geopolitical-commercial plan known as the “Pearl necklace”, since after having bought the port of Piraeus in Greece, with the aim of establishing a trade route to Berlin, they are investing huge amounts of money in the Western Balkans, especially in Serbia. These factors make Serbia a state located in the heart of one of the key regions of the European continent subject to the influence of not one, but two world powers.

In view of the aforementioned circumstances, the collective European imagination must shake off the remaining stereotypes of the warlike Serbia of the 1990s and value the open, prosperous and cooperative Serbia that it is today, which lends itself as a fundamental partner for completing the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union.