On October 15-19, 2023, Leonid Litra, Senior Research Fellow, New Europe Center, took part in an study and advocacy visit to Serbia. As part of the visit to Belgrade and Novi Sad, a series of meetings were held with officials, diplomats, representatives of civil society and local government.

“Serbia’s perception of Russian aggression against Ukraine is changing. This does not mean that Ukraine is perceived more positively, at least in the media, but relations with Russia are no longer so stable. This makes it possible to establish bilateral relations between Ukraine and Serbia, “Leonid Litra shared his impressions during his stay in Serbia.

Leonid Litra`s other impressions of the visit:

• In general, all the discussions and conclusions, be it about Ukraine, EU integration, Russia, reforms, etc are analyzed though the lenses of Kosovo. Serbs are widely convinced that they have a separate future with Kosovo, but still there is no appetite for recognizing this and proceed with the normalization.
• The EU integration is stuck, despite a high potential and having extremely committed people in the filed on EU integration. The candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova created a new momentum also for the Western Balkans and Serbia is interested to use this momentum to give a boost to its EU efforts.
• In the area of readiness to join the EU, the progress is uneven. In certain areas is better, in other is lagging behind. A particular element is the alignment with EU foreign policy. The sanctions against Russia are not there, as they claim, for historical reasons. However, Serbia is compensating this with other actions.
• Compared to Ukraine, Serbia is In certain areas ahead in its EU efforts, in other areas behind – that is why we need to talk to each other.

Educational and advocacy visit supported by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Ukraine.