Varhelyi: EU to continue support to Serbia

BELGRADE - The EU wants to remain Serbia's main political and economic partner and will continue to support it on the European path, in its economic recovery and when it comes to challenges arising from the energy crisis and the fight against illegal migration, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday.

At a press conference with Vucic, Varhelyi noted the significance of solving the issue of illegal migration and said the Western Balkans, and especially Serbia, could count on political, financial and operational assistance from the EU.

He said the EU appreciated Vucic's work on the migration issue, and also thanked the Austrian chancellor and the Hungarian PM.

He said all three officials were setting a good example, and expressed the hope more EU member states would join the cooperation.

He said migrations were a threat to Serbia and the entire region and that no one was able to deal with that problem single-handedly.

He said that, for that reason, the EU was helping Serbia to dismantle people-smuggling channels. Welcoming the alignment of Serbia's visa policy with the EU, Varhelyi said it was an extremely important move and added that rule of law reforms were important as well.

He said two key steps were still missing but added that he had received assurances they would be taken very quickly. We also need clear messages and steps coming from Belgrade because I cannot hide the fact the Russian war is impacting the accession process, he said.

He said alignment with the EU foreign policy was more important than it had been before because Europe, too, had been "attacked by the Russian war."

That is why we need Serbia as a candidate country, because we see a strong ally in Serbia, Varhelyi noted. It is important that Serbia assists the EU sanctions on Russia, he said.

I particularly welcome the president's message that he will help us implement the sanctions to end this war, Varhelyi said, referring to Vucic's statement that no one was able to bypass the sanctions on Russia through Serbian territory.

Varhelyi also said the EU had set up an energy assistance package that would mobilise at least 2.5 bln euros for the region.

He said preoccupations with availability of energy during the upcoming winter were noticeable, in particular in Western Balkan states with lower financial strength.

He said that, possibly as early as this year or at the beginning of next year at the latest, the EU would provide 165 mln euros to help the most threatened households and SMEs to overcome the huge price gap resulting from the energy crisis.

He said the other part of a programme aimed at resolving the energy crisis would address investments that would change the energy picture of the Western Balkans.

He said he and Vucic had agreed that this required a new plan because current supply routes and suppliers needed to be changed.

We must promote energy transition and security, over the short and the long term, but we must also introduce new routes and new energy sources and that is why we must give our Bulgarian friends a push to accelerate the construction of a gas interconnector with Serbia that will hopefully supply Azerbaijani gas to Serbia already next year, he said, adding that the EU was also pushing for a Serbia-North Macedonia interconnector for the same reason.

He said the EU was also pushing for a new LNG terminal in the Adriatic and for projects that would bring green power to the Western Balkans from countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. He said all this meant the Western Balkans would become a new point of entry for energy coming to the EU.