“Serbia must stop talks with EU and start taking care of itself”

Although people in Serbia are less and less supporting European integration, “new old” government is setting up a separate ministry to deal with integration issues, Dragana Trifkovic, head of the Belgrade-based Center for Geostrategic Studies told EADaily on June 28. The European community has been experiencing domestic crisis for a number of years already, as even its founding states are leaving it, Trifkovic recalled. Officials in Brussels think Brexit will pave the way for reforms inside the EU and integration of the Balkans, which is a wrong idea, as it may aggravate the crisis inside EU, the expert says.

According to her, the EU is not able to settle even the current problems, so it will hardly manage to cope with new challenges.

The steps Serbia has already taken on the way to Europe have brought no breakthrough in settlement of any of its problems (economy, legislation, freedom of media, anti-corruption measures etc.). Brussels conceals this carefully drawing a false picture of the state of affairs in the country, Dragana Trifkovic says.

Looking at the real situation, free import from EU creates unequal conditions for Serbian entrepreneurs in the market, Trifkovic says. As for freedom of media and anti-corruption measures, integration has just increased the number of problems, she says.

“Serbia should quit talks with EU and start caring for itself. Serbia can cooperate with European countries on a bilateral basis respecting mutual interests,” she says. According to the expert, Serbia cannot protect its national interests in EU considering that most of EU member-countries support separatists’ aspiration of Pristina and do not observe International Law. Dragana Trifkovic is sure that Serbia needs to cooperate with the countries that respect its territorial integrity, unless it may lose its territories. “A referendum to assess the country’s attitude towards EU and EU’s attitude towards Serbia is a good reason to bring Serbia back to the right way,” she says.

EADaily recalls that on June 26, the parliament of Serbia passed legislative amendments and set up two new departments: ministries of ecology and for European integration. Mass media perceived the news about the ministry for European integration as an alarm of readiness to make a new jump on the way to EU.