https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/bea6a2b0-bd1e-4ff1-86f8-88474203bb59 After more than a year and a half of student protests following a construction catastrophe that ultimately claimed 16 lives, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced he intends to resign ahead of the end of his second, and as mandated by law, final term. But he is not likely to quit politics and may be eying the post of prime minister. With Vučić clinging onto power, will Belgrade ever have a chance to join the European Union, which it applied to join in 2012? “It’s not even a popular option amongst the Serbs themselves. As you know, only about 30% or so support it. (...) Why does the EU bother with Serbia when they don’t want it, and they are problematic in so many ways?” Urszula Gacek, Poland’s former Ambassador to the Council of Europe, told TVP World, citing Belgrade's problems with the independence of the media and the judiciary, as well as doubts about the fairness of the electoral process. “When you look at the other candidate countries in the Balkans, they have aligned their foreign policy very much with ours in the European Union,” Gacek added, giving the example of how West Balkan states treat the Russo-Ukrainian war, while Belgrade has “been very liberal with giving Serbian citizenship to Russians, some of whom might have, let's say, well, somewhat dubious backgrounds.” “And this is a security concern for the European Union. I mean, giving Serbia a seat at the Brussels table would be a completely different ballgame (...) This wouldn’t be lobbying for Russia. I think this would be many ways, Russia having a seat at the table,” the former diplomat concluded. Join TVP World’s Klaudia Czerwińska and her guest as they discuss the likelihood of Vučić winning the election and becoming prime minister, the obstacles to Serbia’s membership in the EU, and how Serbia is balancing between Brussels, Moscow, and Beijing. 🔴 Watch our 24/7 livestream - https://youtube.com/live/9RY46AUtIl4 Bringing you all the latest daily news and updates, TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find world news as seen from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. https://tvpworld.com/ https://www.facebook.com/tvpworldcom https://twitter.com/TVPWorld_com https://www.instagram.com/tvp_world/ https://www.threads.net/@tvp_world https://bsky.app/profile/tvpworld.bsky.social https://www.tiktok.com/@tvpworld.com https://t.me/tvp_world #Serbia #EuropeanUnion #relations #Russia Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:00:16 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://video.echelon.pl https://video.echelon.pl/client/assets/images/icons/icon-1500x1500.png https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/bea6a2b0-bd1e-4ff1-86f8-88474203bb59 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://video.echelon.pl/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.