Jozef Hajic: Ukraine has now turned into a leading European project

Jozef Hajic

How is the essentially “historic first state of the Slavs” — Serbia — progressing through its application to the EU? What obstacles await Ukraine on this road? The Newssky asked the chairman of the board of the William D. Donovan Foundation for International Peace (Washington-Belgrade) Jozef Hajic about this.

Serbia received the status of a candidate for EU membership within the framework of the EU’s complex stabilization arrangements in the Balkans, or rather, the comprehensive peace agreement. However, Belgrade officially applied on December 22, 2009, and this issue was put on the EU agenda only in 2012. Serbia is expected to complete negotiations in 2024–25. There are many obstacles on this path and they are not of an economic nature at the moment. In particular, this is the issue of Kosovo, which has recently become more acute. Given the current situation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, similar problems can affect Ukraine’s path to the EU and, probably, NATO (however, the EU “swallowed” the integration of Cyprus, the candidacy of North Macedonia and Serbia, and NATO – Greece, Turkey, and the rest). It should be noted, however, that currently Ukraine is obviously the largest military power of the West after the USA, Great Britain, Turkey and France, in Europe — after France and, perhaps, Poland, and this is now important. One way or another, Ukraine has turned into a leading European project, and since 2014. Serbia, in turn, suffers from cyclical political populism and increased Russian and Chinese influence, but, one way or another; it does not try to drift away from the main path of EU integration. Despite the division of Serbian society in relation to the war between the two largest Slavic nations, sober circles in Belgrade cannot help but welcome the official accession of bold and powerful Ukraine to the circle of Union countries for the time being, with the full understanding that the path to full membership in the EU will be difficult.

In Ukrainian

Maksym Mykhaylenko, the Editor-in-Chief of the Newssky, has contributed