The Serbian Foreign Ministry announced its unwillingness to beg Brussels for the country's membership in the EU.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric said that Serbia is on its way to membership in the European Union (EU), but the authorities will not beg the leadership of the association to accept the republic into its membership. This was reported by Bloomberg on April 16.

The diplomat added that Belgrade will soon adopt another set of laws necessary for joining the European Union, as it wants to complete all administrative and technical procedures on this issue by the end of 2026.

At the same time, he noted that the decision to accept Serbia remains solely with Brussels, and the country will not "beg" the leadership of the bloc.

Serbia has been an official candidate for EU membership since 2012. Negotiations on joining the bloc reached an impasse in 2022, as Belgrade refused to join sanctions against Russia and made little progress in dialogue with Kosovo, whose secession the Balkan country refuses to recognize.

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As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted on April 15, Brussels is trying to turn Serbia into a buffer zone against Russia. He recalled that Serbia was given two conditions for joining the EU: recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed Kosovo, as well as joining all European sanctions against Russia.

On April 10, Politico newspaper wrote about Brussels' intention to stop financial assistance to Serbia in the amount of up to 1.5 billion euros in order to force Belgrade not only to change the judicial system in accordance with the "democratic principles" of the bloc, but also to force it to abandon close ties with Russia.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.