Wednesday’s EU-Western Balkan summit was really nothing of the sort, given the absence of any officials from the region’s largest country, Serbia.
President Aleksandar Vučić chose not to attend the discussion on EU enlargement “for the first time in the last 13 or 14 years” to make clear his frustration with the lack of progress being made on Serbia’s accession.
As we reported earlier on Thursday, the disaster that was the EU-Western Balkans summit did not bode well for the now ongoing European Council meeting on funding Ukraine.
Serbian Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starović explained in a post on social media that “by shortsightedly lacking the will to recognise the results of reforms over the past four years,” some EU institutions and member states were sending “a very bad message … to the citizens of our country, one that only fuels anti-European narratives and discourages the drivers of reform processes in society.”
Therefore, by absenting ourselves from today’s gathering, we are not only defending the dignity of our people but also the integrity of the accession process, as well as the credibility of the European idea in Serbia.
Као министар за европске интеграције у Влади Републике Србије у потпуности подржавам став председника Александра Вучића да наша држава не учествује на данашњем самиту Европске уније и Западног Балкана. Оваква одлука представља израз стварне посвећености нашем путу ка чланству у…
— Nemanja Starović (@nstarovic) December 17, 2025
Vučić added that his decision was about “protecting the Republic of Serbia and its interests, because we have to show what we have done, and we have done a lot.”
The move was backed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who said officials have been “strung along for four years, yet not a single step has been taken forward on Serbia’s accession.”
A familiar situation: so-called “rule of law problems.” When it comes to Ukraine’s accession, of course, the Brusselian auditors have not identified any such problems.
Slovak PM Robert Fico added that Vučić was right not to attend the summit due to “the unfair treatment of Serbia by EU institutions.”
DAMAGED AIRCRAFT AND A CONTROVERSIAL SUMMIT ON EU ENLARGEMENT, WHICH THE SERBIAN PRESIDENT A. VUČIĆ RIGHTLY DID NOT ATTEND IN PROTEST. THIS IS HOW WE STARTED TODAY IN BRUSSELS…
The demanding summit in Brussels did not get off to a good start. At the airport, a vehicle with… pic.twitter.com/0rcrLUK0t9
— Robert Fico 🇸🇰 (@RobertFicoSVK) December 17, 2025
Starović stressed his thanks to “colleagues from the European Commission,” as well as to member states that have supported his nation’s accession to the EU, while also expressing “hope that the remaining member states will soon join the political consensus that is necessary to overcome the stagnation to which Serbia has been subjected without sufficient real reasons.”