Vucic: Serbia will work on EU membership path, but also to strengthen itself and improve living standards

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he is grateful to Slovak President Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico for their consistent and open support to Serbia, and added that Serbia will continue to work and do its best when it comes to the process of joining the EU, but at the same time, on strengthening itself and improving living standards.

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Asked if he and the Slovak president discussed EU integration and the double standards that the EU applies to Serbia, Vucic said that he will not complain and whine about the unfairness, adding, "Every person in Serbia knows very well what the reasons are".

"More than four years ago, we were ready to open Cluster 3. Since the war in Ukraine started, we have not opened a single chapter. And I don't have to explain anything further. Something always comes up. The target always gets moved and it is said, now you have to do this or now you have to do that. Don't forget that in the meantime we also changed the Constitution regarding judicial laws, for the independent judiciary, which was said to be a cornerstone for Serbia's accelerated entry into the European Union. We didn't even open one chapter," Vucic told a press conference.

He assessed that political obedience is demanded from Serbia all the time, and that this is still clear - "and there's no need to talk about it".

"We are on the European path, we are committed to it and we believe that with the support of our friends we will be able to make progress. We in Serbia are grateful to Peter (Pellegrini) and Robert (Fico) for their support and we can appreciate that. And as for another important matter, we will continue to work on the European path and do our best, but do I expect big changes in the European Union on this matter? I do not expect them," said the president.

He assessed that in the meantime, all those small countries around us are being used mainly for "containing Serbia".

"Because when Serbia is strong and growing, regardless of the fact that we are a small country, we are much bigger than others in our neighborhood, then these big countries use the small ones to spread anti-Serb propaganda and scare their own population with Serbia and of course for that whole story about how everyone else is good and nice in Europe, except for us. that's why we have to respect our friends, to be infinitely grateful to them and to believe in ourselves. To continue working on improving living standards, preparing for EXPO - to make that our most important goal," said Vucic.

Vucic added that Serbia has opened five chapters from that cluster, and that there are only three more.

"It simply wasn't some technical problem for them, or anything like that. Simply, that is the message, that's the message they wanted to send. We accepted it and we're turning towards ourselves, we're turning to our work, to progress. We have a lot of infrastructural work to do, a lot of important things regarding our economy, to preserve peace, which you will see will - in just six to nine months - turn out to be the key and most important decision," underlined Vucic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)