EU Candidates Prepare to Cross Over to BRICS

JAKARTA – Serbia are at a crossroads until finally having to choose, whether to join together BRICS or just become a candidate member European Union (EU) . This was conveyed by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin in an interview with Russian media.

The largest republic of the former Yugoslavia applied for EU membership in 2009 and has been a candidate since 2012, but Brussels recently demanded recognition of the breakaway province of Kosovo as a condition for membership.

“BRICS asks for nothing from Serbia and offers more than we want. The EU asks for everything from us, and I am no longer sure what it offers,” Vulin told RIA Novosti on Monday (August 12).

“We see BRICS as an opportunity and an alternative,” added Vulin.

“Serbia is thinking very carefully about all the possibilities presented by BRICS and closer cooperation with its member states,” he explained.

Vulin hopes to receive an official invitation to be a guest at the BRICS summit, scheduled for late October in Kazan, Russia.

Despite huge pressure from Brussels, Belgrade has joined the US and EU embargo on Moscow, while Serbia has officially pledged neutrality in the Ukraine conflict and maintained trade ties with Russia and the West.

“Something happened to everyone who called for a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, they were shot,” Vulin said, citing the assassination attempts on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and former US President Donald Trump.