"EU forcing Serbia to give up Kosovo and join Cold War"

"EU forcing Serbia to give up Kosovo and join Cold War"

"The EU is in such a state that, if it had join itself now, it would have great problems to meet the criteria. The greatest deficits at the EU level are precisely the rule of law and democracy. In addition, many perceive the EU as a machine for breaking down of the welfare state. For millions of people, the promise of prosperity, that was once tied to stronger integration, no longer holds," she said, and added:

"Given all this, there is growing skepticism regarding the EU enlargement. It is being reinforced by the fact that the EU, in accession negotiations with Turkey, constantly tramples on its own criteria, so in recent years, it rewarded the decline in human rights with intensified accession negotiations. Many look at this in disbelief. This kind of behavior reduces the acceptability of EU enlargement in general."

The German MP is skeptical about whether politicians in power will bring up the topic of EU enlargement with their voters.

"On the one hand, a change in social policy is not discernible in the EU, on the other, in questions enlargement and neighborhood policy, the EU is oriented toward strengthen the front toward Russia, thus creating new conflicts in Europe instead of opening prospects for a peaceful solution. If the only goal in the Balkans is to force countries to join EU sanctions against Russia, then these countries are being pushed into new divisions. It certainly has nothing to do with social and democratic prospects. In addition, an enlargement policy which primarily follows the interests of large companies from Germany and France has no future," Dagdelen added.

According to her, the goal of the membership negotiation process with Serbia is force Belgrade to give up Kosovo.

"And there the EU violates its own criteria. Such approach of EU's institutions is based on nothing, because there are still member states that do not recognize the declared independence of Kosovo. In connection with this, I find it problematic that the EU is not unequivocally condemning the Greater Albania plans. For years, a blind eye has been turned to the growing Islamist influence in Kosovo through projects of Saudi patrons," she said.

"It is hard to escape the impression that all means are being used to suppress the Russian influence in the Balkans, to plunge, above all the Serbia, into new conflicts, to place as many obstacles as possible before Russian projects, as we can see in the case of the South Stream pipeline. Let me be clear: the EU is trying to force Serbia to give up Kosovo and participate in the Cold War against Russia. And even then, it would be completely uncertain whether Serbia would actually join the EU," concluded Dagdelen.