\n<\/p>\n
Brussels– <\/span>BRUSSELS (AP) – serbia<\/a> EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned on Monday that the EU could lose access to about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU funds if it fails to halt democratic decline.<\/p>\n international monitor<\/a> He said he had witnessed violence and irregularities during local elections in 10 Serbian municipalities last month.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned about what is happening in Serbia,\u201d Kos told EU lawmakers. He said the European Commission was “assessing whether the country still meets the conditions for payments under EU financial instruments.”<\/p>\n Koss said the commission’s concerns range from “laws that undermine the independence of the judiciary to the crackdown on protesters and repeated interference in independent media.”<\/p>\n Serbia qualifies for a larger share an EU fund<\/a> Boosting growth in countries trying to join the bloc if they reform. Kos said Belgrade has received 110 million euros ($130 million), but that “about 1.5 billion is still in question.”<\/p>\n The EU has stepped up efforts to integrate the Western Balkans since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, amid fears that Moscow could try to destabilize the region that is still feeling the effects of its own wars in the 1990s.<\/p>\n Populist President of Serbia alexander vucic<\/a> There are claims that he wants to take his country into the European Union, but has maintained close ties with Russia. They disregarded EU warnings and participated Russia’s Victory Day Parade<\/a> With President Vladimir Putin last year.<\/p>\n Experts from Europe’s main democracy and constitutional affairs body, the Venice Commission, visited Serbia last month for talks with political leaders and top court and legal officials to assess the concerns raised by the Speaker of Serbia’s Parliament.<\/p>\n It is due to hand down an “urgent opinion” based on its findings in the coming weeks. Kos said Brussels expects Serbia to “fully align its judicial laws with the Venice Commission’s recommendations and restore the independence of its media.”<\/p>\n “Serbia must deliver results,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brussels– BRUSSELS (AP) – serbia EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned on Monday that the EU could lose access to about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU funds if it fails to halt democratic decline. international monitor He said he had witnessed violence and irregularities during local elections in 10 Serbian municipalities last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[238,23688,2688,3133,1051,19245,473,9041],"class_list":{"0":"post-82334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-access","9":"tag-backsliding","10":"tag-billion","11":"tag-democratic","12":"tag-due","13":"tag-euros","14":"tag-lose","15":"tag-serbia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82337,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82334\/revisions\/82337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}