“If Vuciq goes on like this, s cotch out negotiations with the EU”

Eurodeputet Tonino Picaula has said that if Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq continues with this policy, he does not rule out the interruption of Serbia's membership negotiations in the bloc.

He stressed to N1 television in Zagreb that among the many things Vuciq said on Saturday, perhaps the most important is his declaration, which must be remembered, that he will have to assess whether the time has come to accept another reality.

It seems to me that he has long lived in an alternative reality, trying to combine the impossible, and the circumstances have long been in his favor. With the change that took place in the geopolitical plan after February 24th and Russian aggression against Ukraine, many things changed and accelerated”, Picula said

Picaula says the room for maneuvering for Vuciqi's previous policy is shrinking and stresses that some new priorities must be respected and that Serbia's president must prepare the Serbian public for many unpopular decisions that must be implemented, which will be in sharp contrast to the narrava that has dominated since his coming to power, above all when it comes to Kosovo.

According to him, the meeting in Prague was a point leading to an evidently more critical and harsh policy of European institutions towards Serbia, and regardless of how Vuciq interprets it, Serbia is in question.

Commenting on Serbia's progress in the negotiations for membership in the European Union, Picaula said they are practically already frozen because no new chapter or negotiating group has been opened for a long time and there is less chance that something like this will happen by the end of the year.

“Ende has the opportunity for Serbia to improve its perception with another policy, but if President Vuciq continues with this policy and causes additional criticism in the EU, it is not exempt from suspending negotiations”, added Picula, who is once also author of the report on the new European Enlargement Strategy.