“Serbia’s EU membership may be delayed due to Lukashenka’s visit”
Experts: The visit of Belarusian president to Serbia was made possible by loopholes in the law, but it may cost a lot to Serbia politically.
Serbia is not an EU member state but it supported the sanctions imposed on Belarusian officials. Nevertheless, the Belarusian President, a persona non grata in the EU, has arrived in Belgrade to pay an official visit to Serbia.
Does it mean that European sanctions can be easily ignored when needed? It has already happened once – Lukashenka visited Lithuania in 2009.
“Serbia supported the EU declaration that imposed sanctions on Belarus but we have never used them. Our national legislation has no mechanism for it and our government has never made the corresponding decisions,” the President’s foreign policy adviser Ivan Mrkić told the Serbian edition Blic.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka
Ivan Mrkić explained to Danas journalists how Lukashenka’s arrival related to Brussels’ negative attitude:
“I was with the President during his last year’s visit to Minsk. He headed for Belarus from Brussels after a meeting with Catherine Ashton (High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – Euroradio’s note). The EU knew that we were going there and they knew what our relations with Belarus were. We did not hide anything. Our goal is to develop the best relations, especially in the economic sphere. It does not apply to Serbia’s policy or strategic decisions. We agreed on the visit to Minsk with Brussels and the corresponding EU institutions. Naturally, President Nikolić would not have invited Lukashenka if nobody had known about it.”
There will be no negative consequences for Serbia in the EU after Lukashenka’s arrival, Mrkić added.
Lithuanian ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis agrees that Serbia, a candidate for the EU membership, has the formal right to invite anyone. However, the politician doubts that Belgrade discussed the visit with Brussels.
Audronius Ažubalis: “I think that they did not even ask. I am not 100% sure but Lukashenka’s visit to Serbia is… you know what it means to Brussels.”
He does no believe that Brussels is using Belgrade’s good relations with official Minsk to establish relations with Belarus either.
Audronius Ažubalis: “What would Brussels need a go-between for? Serbia still has a lot to do to fight corruption, provide business interests and fight competition and so on. So…”
Audronius Ažubalis
Slovak psychologist and President of the Slovak Institute for Public Affairs Grigorij Mesežnikov agrees with the Lithuanian politician.
Grigorij Mesežnikov: “If the European Union did try to change something, it would not use a country wishing to join the union for it. It would use a member state as it would be more efficient and secure. I do not think that Brussels unofficially approved the invitation: ‘Let us try doing it with the help of Serbia’. It looks like the Serbian authorities’ attempt to do something that would result in the European Union’s reaction. Serbia’s position will be defined on the basis of the reaction.”
By the way, Audronius Ažubalis was surprised to hear that Minsk and Brussels were trying to conduct negotiations. There is no dialogue at all, the Lithuanian politician assured. European officials’ visits to Minsk are just Brussels’ attempt to check what has changed in the Belarusian policy, he noted.
Audronius Ažubalis: “They are coming to check: ‘What if they have come to see reason?”
Euroradio’s interlocutors disagreed with Serbian President’s foreign policy adviser Ivan Mrkić who said that Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s visit could not have any consequences for Serbia.
Grigorij Mesežnikov: “The sanctions were not imposed accidentally – it was a response to certain events and a certain policy. Serbia’s readiness to follow the European Union’s policy in all spheres may be called in question now. The process of Serbia’s gradual accession to the EU may become more complicated.”
Grigorij Mesežnikov
The benefit of Serbia-Belarus cooperation will not make up for the political losses caused by the Belarusian President’s visit to the country, Audronius Ažubalis warned.
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk, www.president.gov.by
