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Serbian EU integration process seems to inevitably go towards a total fiasco. This has of course been rather foreseeable for years, yet ‘EU integration’ was an ideological mantra, stubbornly repeated by all Serbian governments since 2000. This might have, however, changed rapidly last month.

Demands that Serbia received in almost two decades reached unbearable heights with a British ‘paper’. This document was written in a form of an ultimatum. It conditions Serbia to practically recognise its breakaway province of Kossovo-Metochia as an independent country, to get the process of EU accession chapters opened. In effect, the British have crashed Serbia’s EU integration aspirations in a single move. This may prove to be just too much, even for Serbian Euro-enthusiastic liberals.

But this was not all. On 27th October, Federica Mogherini signed, on behalf of the EU, the Stabilisation & Association Agreement (SAA) with separatists in Kossovo-Metochia, as if it was an independent state. By this, the EU practically ceased to be neutral on the province’s status and gave Serbia a diplomatic slap on the face.

Only a day later, ethnic Albanian separatist officials in Kossovo-Metochia, ‘President’ Atifete Jahjaga and ‘Prime-Minister’ Isa Mustafa, said they would suspend the process of establishing the Community of Serbian Municipalities (CSM) that was stipulated under the EU-brokered Brussels Agreement (2013) aimed at ‘normalization’ of relations between official Belgrade and the separatists.

This community was meant to be a weak safeguard of basic rights of the remaining Serbs in the province. Mrs Jahjaga said that “Kosovo’s constitutional court would give its final verdict about the agreement”. Mr Mustafa added that any decision of this ‘court’ will be respected. This all came after weeks of chaos in the separatist ‘parliament’, provoked by ultra-nationalist ethnic Albanian party called Self-Determination, whose MPs were repeatedly throwing teargas during discussions on CSM. Although the Brussels Agreement is quite favorable for the Albanian side, its only concession to Serbia and Kosovo-Metohija Serbs – no matter how weak – was trampled because even that was too much for the separatists and their NATO sponsors.


Comment: US policy in ex- Yugoslavia during the last few decades is nothing short of a catastrophe. In 1991 the West encouraged the break-up of Yugoslavia. Then the U.S. and Europeans decided that Serbs were not entitled to likewise secede from Croatia and Bosnia, the latter burgeoning into a particularly bloody conflict. NATO eventually lent its air force to Muslims in Bosnia and helped impose the bizarre Dayton accord, under which three antagonistic groups are supposed to live together in an artificial state ruled by international bureaucrats.

The same hypocrisy is blatantly being played out in Kosovo – Washington unreservedly supports Britain, Spain, and Turkey, for instance, in dealing with violent separatists, has placed no pressure on Macedonia to offer autonomy to its ethnic Albanians, and ignores mass violence mostly everywhere else around the globe, yet in the same time brutally bombs Serbia in 1999, for trying to deal with Kosovo separatists and since then does everything to change the contemporary geopolitical-map of Balkans by creating a Franken-state of Independent Kosovo funded mostly by heroin trade.

Interestingly enough – or rather indicatively enough – this happened in the middle of a high-profile visit to Moscow made by Serbia’s PM Aleksandar Vučić, accompanied by eight ministers and dozens of business people.

But the best part is that the ‘unconstructive’ behavior of separatist ethnic-Albanian leadership may actually be excellent news for Serbia. Serbian authorities now have a historical opportunity to radically change their foreign policy, stop the implementation of suicidal Brussels Agreement and even get away without being blamed, as it was the separatists who bluntly breached the EU-guaranteed agreements. And Serbian officials, primarily PM Vučić and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić, both personally involved in the Brussels Agreement – now have a unique opportunity not to be remembered as high traitors and to actually repair their own stance in Serbian politics and history.

The opportunity to make this change came with a perfect timing, during PM’s visit to Moscow. Although the public does not have a clear idea of what exactly happened during the visit, a number of contracts have been signed and agreements reached – ranging from culture, economy, energy, agriculture and banking – to military deals. The latter may actually be the most important.

According to media speculations and PM Vučić’s laconic statements, Serbia is about to purchase helicopters, advanced air defence systems and maybe even fighter jets. In the environment in which all of Serbia’s NATO neighbors are getting armed, these purchases are more than necessary. Croatia alone is getting US missile systems with a range of 300 kilometers. Croatian officials and media did not even pretend to hide implying these missiles would be aimed at Serbia. Since all of Serbia’s neighbors are either in NATO (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Romania), or in the process of joining it (Macedonia and Montenegro), or NATO-occupied (Bosnia-Herzegovina), country will either be forced to apply for joining this alliance (under humiliating conditions) or to substantially boost the defense capabilities.

If the Serbian government does not blow another opportunity, the Moscow visit can turn out to be historical. It would mean a necessary radical geopolitical shift in Serbia’s foreign policy and a move towards independent stance in the international arena and towards defending the minimum of national interests.