The European Union has a lot of patience with candidate countries, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has long been violating the values and interests of the European Union (EU), and Serbia is on its way to joining Turkey and Georgia, with whom Brussels has frozen negotiations, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
The German daily writes that everyone in Brussels understands that the necessary reforms in candidate countries "represent a delicate balancing act between European obligations and national sensitivities."
The EU, writes FAZ, is "patient and enduring when it comes to candidates, but "when a government does not even try to find that balance and systematically violates European values, then sometimes even that angelic patience wears out."
"Turkey and Georgia have sensed this, negotiations with those countries are politically frozen. Serbia is now on the same path," FAZ estimates.
The daily assesses that "the final straw was the funeral of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladič with military honors and in the presence of high-ranking state officials."
"Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been filling that glass for years: By undermining the normalization of relations with Kosovo, by not respecting the rule of law, democracy and the separation of powers in his own country, and by courting (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and ignoring sanctions against Russia," writes FAZ.
The European Council now, according to the daily, "must learn a lesson."
"At the same time, the EU door will certainly not be closed before the parliamentary elections in Belgrade at the end of October. For Serbs, this could be the last chance to preserve their European perspective," FAZ notes.
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