How the EU pushes Serbia towards BRICS: Russian Media and Belgrade have the answer

“BRUSSELS CHOOSES SERB-HATER PICULA: They shut the door on Serbia and push it towards BRICS” the media wrote on October 22 when they learned that Croatian politician Tonino Picula was appointed as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia. The next day, headlines read: “EP Appoints Picula: A Serb-hater Reports on Serbia” and raised the question, “Are we further from the European Union?” followed by “A poke in the eye: Brussels selects an anti-Serb envoy for Serbia”.

In addition to the usual bias in reporting on Croatian politicians or government critics in Belgrade – often labeled by the media as “Serb-haters” – these headlines also conveyed a manipulative narrative, promoting the idea that aligning with BRICS (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, with recent additions including Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates) presents an alternative to EU integration.

This narrative reached its peak before and after the BRICS summit in Kazan, which coincided with the Belgrade media’s conclusion that by selecting Picula, the European Union was “pushing” Serbia toward BRICS. Russian media in Serbia, along with Russian officials, Serbian media, analysts, and state officials, collectively amplified it.

 

“EU twists Belgrade’s arm”

 

Russian media in Serbia, RT Balkan and Sputnik, have been – and continue to be – leaders in promoting narratives that position the BRICS as an alternative to the European Union, not by system but by values. In this mission, they employ anti-Western tones, primarily claiming that it is Brussels that “coerces” Serbia by setting conditions for cooperation and membership. “Friends” from BRICS, they say, do not do this.

In an analysis by RT Balkan, titled “What does BRICS offer compared to the EU?”, the portal highlighted assessments that “while Serbia has languished for years in the waiting room for the European Union, geopolitical earthquakes in the world have turned this bloc into an organization people flee from, rather than flock to”.

“The Global South has offered, apparently, a much fairer and more powerful organization – BRICS”, RT Balkan noted, continuing with statements from interlocutors who confirm this thesis. One of them, diplomat Zoran Milivojevic, reminded that Serbia already has strategic partnerships with two BRICS members, Russia and China.

“Despite the objective circumstances that now dictate Serbia’s orientation towards the EU, due to its surroundings and economic interdependence, it still does not renounce communication with the most significant BRICS countries. By its values, Serbia already participates in BRICS. By not imposing sanctions on Russia and not reducing relations with China, it is indirectly connected to BRICS, and Belgrade has no intention of spoiling these ties”, Milivojevic told RT Balkan.

Nikola Vrzić, the editor-in-chief of this portal, also compared the EU and BRICS in his columns, highlighting the alleged advantages that turning towards the East would bring Serbia. Commenting on Brussels’ stance that “maintaining ties with Russia is not in line with EU values”, which was a comment from an EU spokesperson on Aleksandar Vulin’s visits to Moscow, Vrzić pointed out:

“Only one side facing Serbia is ready for cooperation without conditions. The other side, unfortunately surrounding Serbia, is only ready for cooperation on fulfilling all its conditions.”

The editor of RT Balkan added: “That’s the difference between freedom and non-freedom. More precisely: the extent of our cooperation with Russia represents the measure of our freedom.”

The Kremlin also spoke loudly about the “other side’s” conditions through the Sputnik Serbia portal. This media outlet, quoting from Telegram, relayed the words of Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma of Russia, who stated that “participants and observers of the association (BRICS) are not coerced, are not given absurd conditions for cooperation, and do not interfere in the sovereign affairs of these countries, unlike the European Union”.

“Serbia intends to join BRICS. It considers this option as an alternative to the European Union, as this country does not see the EU as a partner. More and more countries realize that BRICS is the perspective and guarantee of a multipolar world”, Volodin wrote and Sputnik reported.

Both RT Balkan and Sputnik also delivered a statement from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov that the EU “twists Serbia’s arm” and “constantly conditions the cooperation process”.

“There are always some conditions. BRICS imposes no conditions on anyone. This is a format of interaction based on mutual respect and readiness to respond to the concerns and interests of others”, Peskov said, as reported by Russian media in Serbia.

 

EU, BRICS, and Kosovo

 

Russian channels have also argued that the European Union demands Serbia relinquish Kosovo, a stance not shared by BRICS members. In an article titled “What BRICS offers Serbia, that the EU does not: Both Kosovo and economic cooperation”, RT Balkan quoted diplomat Vladimir Kršljanin, who emphasized that “the West has long pursued an aggressive and criminal policy towards Serbia and is increasingly losing its global influence, while on the other hand, a global majority that rejects such Western policies contrary to international law has already formed”.

Kršljanin also stated: “It’s evident that today, EU membership not only requires the imposition of sanctions on Russia but also a kind of participation in the war against Russia. Thus, we have two strong reasons to consider BRICS: one is that the EU insists on the independence of Kosovo and Metohija, and the other is that they force us to come into conflict with our most important historical ally”.

Addressing the issue of Kosovo, the Sputnik Serbia portal tackled the dilemma of “either EU or BRICS” as “artificially imposed”. This media highlighted the view of Dragana Mitrović, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, who argued that “confusion is being created and a narrative imposed that Serbia is supposedly on the path to the EU and therefore should not cooperate with BRICS”.

“We are not to blame if they in Brussels see the world through a distorted mirror, having no realistic notion of themselves or their own decline. (…) They have solutions for us too, but those entail being blind followers of promises that will not be fulfilled. Nor should they be fulfilled if we are to be accepted into the EU as the last wretches when it deigns to do so”, Mitrović said, as reported by Sputnik, adding that from Brussels, “they demand that Serbia, for the sake of its European path, relinquish part of its territory – Kosovo and Metohija”.

The Russian portal also highlighted the note from the professor Mitrović that many EU countries were “aggressors to our country, recognized so-called Kosovo, undermine our sovereignty, while on the other hand, we have BRICS integration offering so many good things led by states with enormous capacities”.

 

(Pro-Russian) Belgrade contributes

 

The most vocal proponent of the idea that BRICS serves as an alternative to the European Union is Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin. In recent months, he has made several trips to Russia, where he met with Russian officials and President Vladimir Putin.

Russian media in Serbia have repeatedly relayed Vulin’s messages that “both reason and heart should be with Russia”, and that BRICS is an “alternative to the EU”. Vulin’s statements have been prominently featured in Serbian media.

The Informer relayed Vulin’s reaction to the statement by EU spokesperson Peter Stano that Belgrade is obliged to implement the Ohrid Agreement and that it is part of Serbia’s accession to the European Union.

“Just let the officials of the European Union continue with threats and coercion, and Serbia’s European path will end with its full membership in BRICS”, said the Deputy Prime Minister Vulin.

Vulin, as reported by Novosti, sent “greetings from Kazan”, where he led the Serbian delegation at the BRICS summit. Again responding to Brussels’ expectations that candidate countries for EU membership “refrain from contacts with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin”, Vulin said:

“Trying to isolate Russia and one of the world’s most respected leaders, Vladimir Putin, is as foolish as appointing Picula as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, and Serbia is not foolish. Such moves tell Serbia that the European Union wants it in BRICS. We understand you all. Greetings from Kazan.”

Serbian Parliament and the Informal Group for Cooperation and Association with BRICS

On November 1st, RT Balkan portal reported that an informal Parliamentary Group for Cooperation and Association with BRICS has been formed in the Serbian Parliament.

The Russian portal also mentioned that the decision was communicated to the Speaker of the Parliament, Ana Brnabić, and that Member of Parliament Bojan Torbica was elected as the chairman of the parliamentary group, with MP Dragan Stanojević chosen as the deputy chairman.

More information about this group was not found on the Serbian Parliament’s website, which did not respond to Istinomer’s inquiries, but we did find information on the parliamentary group’s Telegram account “We – The Voice of the People” and on the portal Bratstvo. This portal, also known as the “information portal of the Serbian-Russian brotherhood”, posted the text of the decision to establish the group.

This text emphasizes that “the need to open a broad social dialogue in front of the public of the Republic of Serbia on the undeniable fact that the so-called European path of Serbia has a clear alternative embodied in the process of joining the BRICS organization, as the currently most relevant global economic-political integrative process”.

Highlighting that the group includes both government and opposition members (Torbica is from the Socialist Movement, while Stanojević is part of the parliamentary group We – The Voice of the People), and citing the Bratstvo portal, other websites such as Nedeljnikafera.net and Webtribune.rs also wrote about the Parliamentary Group for Cooperation and Association with BRICS.

Russian narratives about BRICS’s superiority to the EU, or at least those presenting BRICS as more favorable to Serbia, ended up on all TV channels with national coverage.

Professor Ljubodrag Savić from the Faculty of Economics appeared on the TV show “Ćirilica” on TV Happy, stating that Serbia’s “natural path” is “a path to BRICS”.

“BRICS will be, therefore, a group of heterogeneous countries, which cannot resemble the European Union, nor any economic alliance that has existed, but will sometimes idealistically, and sometimes realistically, actually be an alternative. If the European Union does not want Serbia, as it does not, our natural path is to BRICS. Not because we will gain something from BRICS, but because our journey to Europe has been going on, I think, for 300 years. Europe has never actually accepted us; Europe has, in both political and economic terms, caused us the most harm”, said Professor Savić.

On TV Pink, Milovan Drecun, an MP from the Serbian Progressive Party, also promoted BRICS as an alternative to the European Union.

“You know, when someone says – what are four of our ministers doing at a BRICS meeting – yes, we are securing ourselves an alternative. There must be an exit strategy in any serious geopolitical strategy, and our country must have this exit strategy. It is all the more necessary when you look at Picula and the others who will be in significant positions in the institutions of the European Union, we need to seek and build capacity for alternatives, alternatives are needed”, Drecun said, previously emphasizing that “the path to the European Union is highly uncertain”.

Ljubinka Milinčić, editor-in-chief of the Sputnik Serbia portal, presented BRICS on TV Prva as an association where members are not seen as “vassals”.

“It seems to me that BRICS is an association that has a perspective precisely because it does not want to have a structure such that someone is at the top, the others are vassals, as is the case in these others, and people will unite according to their interests”, Milinčić said, comparing BRICS with the European Union.

Following the manipulative narratives that the European Union’s requirements in the accession process are actually coercions, a statement was also made by director and frequent TV guest, Dragoslav Bokan.

“We know what the European Union is. Unfortunately, it is not Europe, but it has some connections with Europe and has a solid structure, so solid that it is more important for them that you do not do something that is not to their liking, rather than you do something that is to their liking. In this sense, they can be very dangerous with their coercive potential, and with those blows below the belt, when they are not satisfied with your reactions. Unlike that, BRICS does not do that, it does not exist in BRICS and that is not a problem. That means, there are no coercions, no pressures, but not only that, some important things are lacking – there is no foundation, there is no construct”, Bokan stated on TV B92.

Although he emphasized his opposition to “any division between the EU and BRICS”, especially while the narrative of BRICS as an alternative to the EU was at its peak, Aleksandar Vučić had previously reiterated the Russian narrative that BRICS countries “coerce us less”.

“I have assessed a few days ago what people in Serbia think about this matter, and today if you tell them, although people do not really know what BRICS means, they have heard that these are some other countries of the world that coerce us less, but they do not know that there are no real mechanisms and that it does not function in a similar way as the European Union. Whether that will be the case in the future is another matter, and I do not exclude that possibility, but here [in Serbia], the level of popularity is somewhere 42 – 42”, said the President of Serbia on RTS, after stating that Serbia is on the “European path”, but also that “people can no longer endure such a dose of hypocrisy, untruths” that come from the West regarding Kosovo.