European Council chief Antonio Costa on Tuesday insisted that Serbia was fully committed to the EU accession process, despite the country’s president visiting Moscow last week.Aleksandar Vucic attended the May 9 celebrations to mark 80 years since the victory over Germany, even after EU warnings that doing so would not be viewed favourably.Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 2012 but has maintained a close relationship with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine and refuses to impose sanctions, unlike the European Union it hopes to join.“We cannot celebrate the liberation 80 years ago and not condemn the invasion of a country today,” Costa said at a joint press conference with Vucic, adding that Serbia is aware that, on the path to EU membership, it must align with the EU’s foreign and security policy.Vucic said Serbia “supports the territorial integrity of all countries in the world, including Ukraine” and that EU membership is the country’s strategic commitment.“Serbia today and Serbia tomorrow is on the European path. I accept criticisms. Serbia in Europe is our path, it is our goal, it is our political will,” he said.Serbia, whose majority of trade is with the EU, has been walking a delicate tightrope between Brussels and Moscow for nearly three years.Belgrade, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Russians since February 2022, relies almost entirely on Russia for its gas supplies and is currently negotiating a new multi-year gas deal with Moscow, as the current agreement expires at the end of May.During his visit to Moscow, Vucic highlighted the energy negotiations as an important reason for his trip.The EU has often expressed concerns about the ties between Serbia and Russia and regularly urged Serbia to align its foreign and security policies with its own.The Balkan country, however, has never adhered to European sanctions against Russia, and several of its ministers have regularly travelled to Russian territory in recent years.In mid-April, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos called for urgent reform.EU expectations of Belgrade were “almost the same” as protesters who have been campaigning for months against institutional corruption, after a deadly railway station roof collapse in the city of Novi Sad last year.
