BELGRADE: Serbia needs to to implement "real reforms", including on tackling corruption, to ensure its bid for EU membership moves forward, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Thursday. Kaja Kallas was in Belgrade for meetings with political leaders, including President Aleksandar Vucic, who is balancing closer EU ties with traditional links to Russia.
At the start of a wider Balkans tour, she called for "actions... to prove and support" Serbia's strategic ambitions to join the EU. "It is reforms that will allow Serbia to progress on its EU path," she told a news conference. "They include media freedom, combating corruption, electoral reforms. So reforms need to be real, not just ticking the box on the paper."
Vucic, a former minister under wartime leader Slobodan Milosevic and president since 2017, has been facing widespread protests since November last year. The protests were triggered by the collapse of the concrete canopy at Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 people. Many in Serbia blamed the tragedy on widespread corruption and impunity, prompting a hardline reaction from the government. — AFP
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