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Opinion
May 11, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
COMMENT:
Serbian President Vucic walking the tightrope to EU accession
James Wilson of the International Foundation for Better Governance
Aleksandar Vucic the current President of Serbia came to power in the April 2017 elections. He came with a reputation of having curbed media freedom and Serbia’s ranking in the Freedom of the Press Index, compiled by Freedom House, has fallen sharply in recent years.
The media in Serbia is dominated by pro-Russian outlets and uncritical pro-government tabloid publications, although the tide is now turning with new investment from agencies such as the BBC to introduce greater independence, credibility
and objectivity into news coverage. Vucic is due to meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin on May 7 for key talks on the two countries' relationship.
Vucic consistently courts the media and is not shy to place opinion editorials in Western publications to get across his point of view. He has frequently gone on the record saying that Serbia’s future
is with the EU, and he wants to secure Serbia’s membership of the bloc. His primary motive is one of national strategic interest; he wants to create the conditions that will bring growth and prosperity to Serbia.
Youth unemployment in the Western Balkans
is double the rate in EU countries and he understands the importance of bringing investment to create new jobs to Serbia to make the economy more competitive, and help the
Serbian president Vucic is walking a tightrope between EU accession and Russia.
economies of the Western Balkan countries to converge, making the region more politically stable and thereby improving the lives of his citizens. He also wants to promote regional unity in the Western Balkans, believing that collectively as a market of 20mn persons Serbia and its neighbours will benefit from economies of scale to attract more investment.
EU Accession negotiations with Serbia began
in January 2014, and in the new enlargement strategy published by the European Commission for the Western Balkans, Serbia and Montenegro have been given the perspective of membership by 2025. This is a short timescale, and potentially a historic opportunity for change. Among the
key issues for progress announced by the Commission in their 2018 report on Serbia are fundamental rights, the rule of law, judicial reform, the fight against organised crime and corruption, freedom of speech, gender equality and the normalisation of relations with Kosovo.
Vucic knows full well that the reform process will bring with it irreversible changes to institutions and to society in Serbia and his commitment to bring his country closer to the EU is sincere.
The international media however still regularly generates news stories that Vucic is a Kremlin puppet completely subservient to the interests of Russia. But this ignores the reality that he is