BELGRADE, December 15. /TASS/. The European Union has been preparing for an armed confrontation with Russia and, in this context, is trying to force Serbia, which is a neutral party, to choose a side, said Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia's former deputy prime minister and former head of the Security and Information Agency.
Commenting on remarks by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, who said that the time has come for Belgrade to choose its side, Vulin said: "Marta Kos thinks that if she can influence how some Serbian government officials vote, or the demands of Serbian protestors, she can also influence the Serbian people to go the way of treacherous Montenegro or obedient Albania."
"That is why she is sending us a signal that the time has come to choose a side in the conflict, in which we are not taking part," he said in a statement, released by his press service. "The European Union is preparing for a war with Russia, but it wants others to sacrifice their lives in this war."
"There aren’t many Slovenians, or Belgians, who are ready to die near Kupyansk, so they would like to replace them with Montenegrins, Albanians, Moldovans and, particularly, with Serbs, if they obey Marta and choose the EU side in the European Union’s war. Serbia has always been on the right side of history, which is not true of Marta’s [home country of] Slovenia or the majority of other EU member states," Vulin continued.
"Freedom reigns supreme in Serbia, but that’s not the case in the EU. The European Union should not force the Serbs to choose their side, because it is not going to like our choice if it succeeds in doing so," the Serbian politician added.
Serbia’s European integration
During an earlier working meeting in Brussels with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Kosta, Serbian President Alexandar Vucic reaffirmed his country’s commitment to its strategic goal of joining the European Union. In his words, Serbia remains oriented towards EU integration, and will continue to follow this path.
Earlier, Vucic called on the Serbian government to implement all of the European Union’s requirements, even where they may not be convenient, to speed up European integration. According to the Serbian leader, the country should demonstrate its commitment to the EU path by making reforms where it has been asked. He noted however that the level of popular support for Serbia’s EU aspirations had dropped by half in the past two decades, from 80% to 40% and linked this rather to domestic than external factors.
Official candidates for EU membership are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Montenegro. Brussels is exerting pressure on Serbia to accept granting this status to the unrecognized republic of Kosovo, which would actually mean the official recognition of its independence.