Voting in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, September 15, 2026. Photo: EPA/RONALD WITTEK.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told a debate in the European Parliament on Tuesday about the glorification of convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic that images from Mladic’s funeral in Belgrade were “profoundly disturbing”.
The debate was held a week after Mladic’s funeral with military honours in Belgrade prompted strong reactions from European institutions and several EU member states.
“It was especially disturbing to see Serbian ministers, state officials and military representatives alongside leaders and politicians from [Bosnia’s Serb-led entity] Republika Srpska, attend the funeral and publicly honour a war criminal,” Kos said.
Serbia is an EU candidate state and Kos said that Belgrade must fulfill its responsibilities. “By applying for EU membership, Serbia committed to our standards, principles, and values,” she said.
“The European Commission has been clear that the glorification of war criminals, genocide denial and revisionism is fundamentally incompatible with these values. It has no place in the EU. It has no place in the EU candidate countries,” she added.
Mladic, who died in The Hague while serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes, was buried at Belgrade’s Topcider Cemetery in Belgrade on September 7. The funeral service was led by Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije, and Serbian government ministers came to pay their respects.
At Tuesday’s debate, several Croatian MEPs slammed the Serbian administration and President Aleksandar Vucic for their role in Mladic’s funeral.
Davor Ivo Stier, MEP for Croatia’s Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, which sits with the European People’s Party, EPP, group said Serbian President Vucic “did not organise a state funeral, but as commander in chief, is responsible for the military honours shown to Mladic”.
“We need to be loud and say clearly that our politics towards Serbia have been mild and ineffective and we need to show and decide that there is no place in Europe for those who glorify Ratko Mladic, and we should not give European funds to those who do not want to distance themselves from [former Yugoslav leader] Slobodan Milosevic’s politics,” Stier added.
Tonino Picula, from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, said that it is “justified to ask whether the European Union needs to continue negotiating with Serbia while this government is in power”.
Helmut Brandstatter, who sits with Renew Europe, said that the EPP should cut its ties with Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.
“We cannot tolerate the celebration of a war criminal. A government that glorifies such atrocities can never be part of the European Union,” Brandstatter added.
Brandstatter also highlighted that Serbian society is European and that Serbia should be part of the European Union, but as a democracy.
Commenting on Serbia’s upcoming snap elections, Brandstatter said: “He [Vucic] wants to have a small majority again to get our money – and friendship with Russia, and that cannot happen. The Serbs are welcome here but the authoritarian regime is not part of the European Union.”