Brussels does not see Belgrade as a true partner, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin has said
Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin has stated that the European Union (EU) has been placing increasingly stringent demands on Serbia without offering any progress toward membership in return. He added that Belgrade will “explore” the option of joining the non-Western BRICS group instead.
Serbia submitted its application to join the EU in 2009 and has held candidate status since 2012. During this time, Brussels has insisted that Belgrade normalize relations with Kosovo, essentially requiring recognition of the breakaway province’s independence. The EU has also demanded that Serbia protect the rights of ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo and sever ties with Moscow by imposing sanctions on Russia as a prerequisite for accession.
“Just tell us: ‘we don’t want you’,” Vulin told the in an interview published on Sunday. “Why do you keep setting us conditions that we cannot fulfil? We see the EU as a partner, but we are not entirely sure that the EU sees us as a partner.”
Vulin told the German newspaper that Russian President Vladimir Putin has never pressured Serbia to choose between Brussels and Moscow or threatened to sever relations if Belgrade initiates EU accession talks.
“At the same time, EU negotiators are telling us: ‘if you do not break off relations with Russia, you will not join the EU’,” he complained. “So are we partners or not? Or do we not have the right to our own interests?”
Serbia will attend the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan later this month, with the aim of joining the expanding economic group.
“It would be irresponsible if we did not explore all possibilities, including BRICS membership,” Vulin said. “If BRICS is attractive to other countries, for example the Emirates or Saudi Arabia or Türkiye , why should it be any different for Serbia? There is no doubt that the BRICS has become a real alternative to the EU.”
Since its inception in 2001, BRICS has evolved from an acronym to an informal alliance that has challenged the US-led G7 bloc in terms of its share of global GDP. It has its own development bank and has expanded from four members in 2006 – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – to five, including South Africa in 2011. This year, four more countries – Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates – have officially joined the group, with Saudi Arabia currently finalizing its accession process.
In September, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed that Türkiye had officially applied to join BRICS, becoming the first NATO state to do so.
Azerbaijan, Algeria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Palestine, DR Congo, Gabon, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Senegal, and Bolivia are among the other nations that have expressed their interest in joining BRICS.