"Serbia received clear warning from EU"

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- An EP official's statement about the participation of Serbian soldiers in the Victory Day parade in Moscow is "a clear warning," says a former diplomat.

Serbian Army soldiers are seen during the military parade in Belgrade last fall (Beta, file)

Eduard Kukan's reaction means that Serbia has been warned the decision could make its EU integration more difficult, Dusan Lazic thinks, and adds that "this could have unforeseeable and far-reaching consequences for our country."
According to him, Kukan's statement is "explicit" and "shows that Serbia has found itself in the focus of the confrontation between Russia and the West."

"This points to the conclusion that it is not changing, but on the contrary, ahead of the parade in Moscow it is gaining proportions that can be really worrying, especially for Serbia's international position and further development of our country," said Lazic, who is now a member of the Forum for International Relations of the European Movement in Serbia NGO.

He further stressed that before the decision was made to participate in the military parade, "all consequences that could stem from such a decision had to be carefully analyzed."

"I don't know if that was done, I suppose some of that had been done," he said, and added that the EP official's reaction shows there was "insufficient understanding of all the things that could happen."

According to Lazic, "Serbia must draw bug conclusions from this," so that in the future, "before we take some steps, we carry out detailed, essential international consultations about those steps."

Asked "what concrete consequences for the Serbia-EU relations the decision could have," he said the consequences "could be varied."

"For a long time our EU integrations have been very slowed down, there have been no results and adequate movement forward although we're always aspiring to speed it up," Lazic said, and noted that "for a long time" there has been no opening of chapters in EU membership negotiations.

For this reason the former diplomat concluded that "we should not bring the country into a temptation from which it is later exceptionally hard to exit."

On Tuesday, Lazic commented on the decision to send Serbian soldiers to the Moscow military parade that will mark the 70th anniversary of victory over fascism to say there were "differences among top Serbian officials" when it comes to the country's foreign policy.