The presidential campaign is also in full gear, so the Minister of Police Ivica Dacic is too busy giving out statements for every single occurrence, while the Progressive party realized that they are the biggest advocates for European integrations so they instantly decide to accuse the Dacic of having “anti-European stands”. Pure irony!
Among the gloomy forecasts of the effect of the new wave of economic crisis on the citizens of Serbia and those, honestly speaking, indecent news which are being placed, an unexpected offer from Slovenia, a former brotherly country, has beenplaced.
The Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor is leading an informal club of five countries lobbying for Serbia’s EU candidacy till the end of the year. Their first assignment is mitigating the tough attitude of the German’s chancellor Angela Merkel towards the Serbian candidacy. And that was the reason of his informal visit to Serbia right before Merkel flew to Ljubljana.
He also suggested a package of solutions for Kosovo, one of which is supposed to be the recently reached agreement on the custom’s seal. And when he saw the undiplomatic exchange of insults heating up between Serbia and Croatia, he also took on the role of the peacemaker.
The motives behind this surprising friendship are not that clear and could be multiple. It is possible that the Slovenians are trying to shift the focus from domestic policy and problems in their own country to foreign policy and they also may be trying to position themselves as a country that is advocating peace and stability in the region. They may also be trying to reinforce their position in the EU or they may simply need a strong ally in the Balkans.
We shouldn’t also forget reasons of an economic nature. After the disintegration of former Yugoslavia, Serbia first amended its relationship with Slovenia, and that relationship has been getting better and better every year even though there are still some unresolved questions.
There is an excellent cooperation on the economic plan which has continuously been evolving every year. The fact is that Serbia is a priority market for Slovenian exports which has been continuously growing and also that a great part of Serbian exports is going towards Slovenia. The joint marketing of Slovenian capital on the Serbian market is almost three billion euros, and there are more than 1400 Slovenian companies in Serbia. So it is clear why Slovenia would like Serbia to join the EU.
Finally, Slovenia’s engagement as Serbia’s main accessory in resolving the Kosovo problem and its path towards the EU can be justified by its strong desire to establish a strong market in the Balkans from which it will benefit.
And regardless of what is the motive for their strong support, the fact is that Serbia needs all the help it can get in order to get the status of a candidate till the end of the year, and after that also the date of the commencement of the negotiations. Of course, only if Europe is still the goal it aspires to. If not, we will continue to deal with phantoms and enjoy the upcoming election campaign that will, apparently, be very dirty!