EU official cancels Serbia visit over planned Ratko Mladic tribute

Brussels’ EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos announced the cancellation of her planned trip to Belgrade, citing the “glorification” of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic as fundamentally at odds with European Union values. In a statement released on Tuesday, Kos said that recent public celebrations and symbolic gestures honoring Mladic, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1990s Bosnian conflict, undermine the EU’s standards on human rights, the rule of law and reconciliation.

Kos’s decision follows mounting pressure from EU officials and civil‑society groups urging Serbia to confront its wartime legacy and to align its public discourse with the accession criteria. Serbian authorities have defended the events as expressions of national sentiment, while opposition parties and international observers warned that such reverence for a figure linked to ethnic cleansing could stall Serbia’s EU integration prospects. The cancellation underscores the EU’s willingness to link diplomatic engagement with adherence to core democratic principles, signaling that further progress toward membership will depend on Serbia’s handling of contentious historical narratives.