Serbia 'Won't Dump Russia for EU'

“The Serbian president and prime minister have refused to back EU foreign policy, believing that Russia is a vital ally for Serbia, and that turning their back on Moscow is out of the question,” an EU source told BIRN.

“We will continue to pressure Serbia, as it is obligatory for a country aspiring to EU membership to comply with our policy,” the source added.

The comments came after meetings between the head of the European Commission Jose Manual Barroso and Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic and President Tomislav Nikolic on Sunday.

The source also said that Vucic will travel this month to Moscow in an attempt to find a middle ground between EU and Russian interests.

At a joint session of the Serbian and Hungarian government held in Belgrade on Tuesday Vucic said he would discuss the issue with Putin when they meet in Moscow.

"We will try to comply with the EU as much as we can but we also have to take into account the interests of Serbia," he told reporters.

Serbian officials insist that the South Stream gas pipeline project is crucial for energy sustainability of the country, and it cannot be sacrificed.

But the way South Stream is being built is not in line with the standards of the European energy community, which Serbia needs to follow as an EU candidate country.

South Stream will pump gas from Russia under the Black Sea, then through Bulgaria and Serbia towards Hungary, Slovenia and Italy. The Serbian section of the pipeline will run for 421 kilometres.

European Commission has already forced Bulgaria to suspend the project, claiming that Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom’s projected monopoly over the pipeline would violate internal EU regulations.

Belgrade has repeatedly refused...