EU Slams Mladic Funeral Honours, Ties Serbia's Path to Upcoming Polls
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos condemned the honours shown at Ratko Mladic's Belgrade funeral and said Serbia's election will shape its EU path.
The European Union's enlargement chief has sharply criticised the honours accorded to convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic at his funeral in Belgrade, telling the European Parliament that such scenes are incompatible with the values Serbia accepted when it applied for membership.
Addressing lawmakers in Strasbourg, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said the images from the burial were "profoundly disturbing" and reflected a failure to confront the past. She singled out the presence of Serbian ministers, state officials and military representatives, alongside leaders and politicians from Republika Srpska, who publicly paid tribute to a war criminal.
Mladic was buried in Belgrade on Monday with military honours. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, led the funeral service, and Serbian army soldiers carried his flag-draped coffin at the cemetery.
Kos stressed that the conduct of those officials does not speak for the whole country. She said many citizens from Serbia and the wider region had written to her rejecting the glorification of war criminals, describing a society that also includes young people, entrepreneurs, civil servants, artists and journalists who want to move forward, confront the past and live in a free, democratic and European country.
While insisting that Europe will never ask Serbia to deny its identity or history, she said it will ask the country to confront that history honestly, including its darkest chapters. She added that the dignity of victims of genocide and war crimes cannot be a matter for negotiation.
Looking ahead, Kos said Serbian citizens will have the chance to decide which path they want to pursue at the upcoming elections, and that the EU expects the vote to be free, fair and transparent in line with European and international standards. The European Commission will present its annual enlargement reports on 28 October, and developments relevant to Serbia's European path will be reflected in that assessment.
She said progress remains in the hands of the incoming Serbian government and pledged to do everything in her power to support the country's EU path, while making clear that respect for the bloc's values will remain non-negotiable.