Duško Lopandić, Vice President of the opposition party Srbija Centar (SRCE) and the former Chief of the Serbian Mission to the European Union, has issued a sharp, formal condemnation of President Aleksandar Vučić’s recent foreign policy maneuvers.
Lopandić firmly rebukes the president’s rhetoric regarding a proposal to convene a summit of EU candidate countries in Belgrade, labeling the initiative “absurd” and highly provocative to both Brussels and fellow applicant nations. The proposal, made during Vučić’s state visit to Tbilisi, Georgia, has been heavily criticized as an effort to align failing autocracies rather than advance actual European integration.
1. The Tbilisi Connection: Birds of a Feather
Vučić floated the idea of a Belgrade-hosted candidate summit while standing alongside the leadership of Georgia. Lopandić pointed out the extreme irony and poor timing of the statement, noting that Georgia’s EU accession path has effectively ground to a halt.
The Dynamic of Democratic Regression (Tbilisi - Belgrade)
[ THE GEORGIAN REALITY ] ──► STATUS "ONLY ON PAPER"
• The current Georgian government has functionally frozen its EU negotiations
and abandoned meaningful reform, precipitating massive civil protests.
[ THE REPRESSIVE SYNERGY ] ──► SHARING AUTHORITARIAN METHODS
• Both regimes face intense domestic unrest and are accused of democratic
backsliding, media crackdowns, and neutralizing the independent judiciary.
[ THE KREMLIN APPARATUS ] ──► COOPERATION ON DISSENT
• Lopandić notes Vučić could use the summit to share experiences on working
with Russian intelligence services to suppress domestic civil protests.
2. Irritating the Frontrunners and Brussels
Lopandić emphasized that launching such an initiative without consulting other candidate states is an act of diplomatic arrogance. It risks deeply alienating Ukraine and Moldova, both of which just hit record historical milestones by opening their first policy negotiation clusters in Brussels.
3. The Asymmetry of Serbia’s Foreign Stance
While the ruling regime claims that EU integration is its ultimate strategic goal, its diplomatic footprint tells a completely different story. Lopandić contrasted Belgrade’s recent push to open embassies in the South Caucasus with glaring gaps in its European diplomatic framework.
| Region / Country | State of Serbian Diplomatic Presence | Strategic Meaning & Alignment |
| The South Caucasus | Actively expanding missions and bilateral treaties with Georgia. | Used to project anti-Western narratives and build alliances around electoral interference models. |
| The Baltic States & Ireland | Belgrade has failed to establish active embassies in these EU member states. | Demonstrates that the regime’s stated priority of EU integration is structurally neglected. |
| The Russian Vector | Maintaining deep intelligence and security sharing to isolate domestic political opponents. | Operates as a hybrid platform to meddle in regional elections, such as those in Hungary and Moldova. |
“This visit to Tbilisi has absolutely nothing to do with aligning our foreign policy with the European Union, but it perfectly illustrates the authoritarian inclinations of Šešelj’s former pupil.”
— Duško Lopandić
Ultimately, Lopandić views Vučić’s proposed summit not as a serious geopolitical tool, but as a “club of losers”—a gathering of derailed integration candidates looking to normalize their domestic crackdowns, anti-European measures, and hybrid platforms under the guise of regional cooperation.
