Senior EU official cancels Serbia trip over planned tribute to Mladic

What the report says

European Union enlargement commissioner Marta Kos has cancelled a planned trip to Serbia after condemning public tributes to Ratko Mladic, the convicted Bosnian Serb wartime commander who died on August 27 while serving a life sentence in The Hague. Al Jazeera reported that Kos said the public “glorification” around his death was incompatible with the values underlying Serbia’s EU path.

The article said Mladic’s body was flown from The Hague to Belgrade and received with military honours, including a guard of honour, ahead of burial arrangements. It also described a supportive reaction from parts of the Serbian public and political establishment, even though Mladic was convicted by a UN court in 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes linked to the Bosnian War.

Kos said she would not continue with the visit in that context. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, quoted by regional broadcaster N1, dismissed her explanation and said the government would provide logistical support for the funeral. According to the report, Serbia has been negotiating EU membership since 2014, but accession talks have stalled in recent years.

More broadly, Mladic remains a deeply divisive figure in the Balkans, and his name is closely associated with the Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed in July 1995. The episode underscores the continuing tension between Serbia’s EU ambitions and unresolved wartime memory politics.