Serbia and the EU

A debate was held in the European Parliament on the conclusions of the European Council held at the beginning of March. The summit mostly dealt with economic issues, but also gave Serbia candidate status, as well as discussing Syria and the Eastern Partnership. This was my contribution.

The decision of the European Council to endorse Serbia’s candidacy has a twofold significance. With respect to Serbia, it marks the definitive end to the aftermath of the wars of Jugoslav succession and the lingering assumption – widely held at the time – that the Serbs were somehow the hereditary villains of the Balkans.

With the acceptance of Serbia’s candidacy, that particular canard has been laid to rest. Serbia can now be regarded as having returned to the European family. This has its long term significance – after all, stability in South-Eastern Europe is inconceivable without Serbia. And stability here has to extend to all policy areas, notably criminality; without Serbia’s full commitment in the fight against organised crime, the Balkans would continue to constitute an easy prey for transnational mafias.

But the step in question has a second, possibly greater significance. It makes it clear that EU enlargement, though moving forward only slowly, has not stalled. This obviously has implications for the rest of South-Eastern Europe.

What is equally noteworthy is that despite the economic crisis, the EU continues its commitment to enhancing the stability of its neighbourhood, relying on soft power to achieve this aim. The encouragement to the countries of the Eastern Partnership and the planned elaboration of a road map are evidently steps in the direction of ensuring that objective.

All these strategies and policy objectives, however, depend on overcoming the long drawn-out economic crisis, the central concern of the summit. Here the decisions point in the right direction, and it is absolutely crucial that fiscal discipline go hand-in-hand with a recognition of the importance of economic growth. In the absence of this, the EU will find itself much less attractive and with much reduced soft power.

Sch. Gy.