BRICS vs. E.U.: Serbia Plans to Join BRICS+ as Frustration over E.U. Demands Pushes Countries to Seek Alternatives
Prospects of E.U. membership in exchange for limited sovereignty is a "no-go" to a growing number of states
Although new memberships in BRICS+ have been suspended indefinitely, a diverse group of countries announced their intention to join the economic association: Malaysia, Austria and Türkiye, among others.
The countries that have spent years pursuing accession to the European Union and have remained “on hold” are growing noticeably frustrated: not only do they have to satisfy a range of economic requirements year after year, but also their national interests are frequently jeopardized by the European Union’s demands and expectations.
In September 2024, Türkiye officially announced its intention to join BRICS+. The first NATO member to express interest in the “Global South” alliance, Türkiye’s interest was perceived as a quite logical extension of President Erdogan’s posture to balance the nation’s ties in the West with the growing appeal of the Eurasian partnerships. Türkiye has the potential to offer significant benefits to BRICS+, including efficient energy transportation routes via the East-West transportation corridor.
Türkiye’s membership is likely a matter of formality once the bloc finalizes its new member model (potentially to be announced during the 2024 Annual Summit in Kazan).
Türkiye is not the only country that signaled its readiness to seek membership in BRICS+ in lieu of the European Union. Serbia indicated that it would explore the option of joining the BRICS+ bloc instead of the E.U. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin (who is currently under the U.S. sanctions) echoed the sentiments expressed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, emphasizing that the E.U. makes increasingly stiff demands and offers no progress toward membership in return.
Serbia applied to join the European Union in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012. A little more than decade later, Serbia recognized that BRICS+ has the potential to offer appealing alternatives to expand trade ties and economic cooperation without infringing upon a state’s interests.
For Serbia, demands made by Brussels are borderline challenging if not outright unacceptable. In recent years, Brussels upgraded its demand that Belgrade normalize relations with Kosovo into a de-facto recognition of the breakaway province’s independence. Serbia views such demands as unrealistic and unlikely to be fulfilled.
In a recent interview to Berliner Zeitung Alexandar Vulin commented:
“Just tell us: ‘we don’t want you. Why do you keep setting us conditions that we cannot fulfill? We see the EU as a partner, but we are not entirely sure that the E.U. sees us as a partner. At the same time, E.U. negotiators are telling us: ‘if you do not break off relations with Russia, you will not join the EU. So are we partners or not? Or do we not have the right to our own interests?”
Vulin told the German newspaper that Russia, on the other hand, had never forced Serbia to choose between Brussels and Moscow, or threatened to cut relations if Belgrade begins E.U. accession negotiations. The issue related to recognizing Kosovo is unlikely to be resolved soon either.
The annual BRICS summit is just around the corner as Serbia announced its plans to attend the conference:
“It would be irresponsible if we did not explore all possibilities, including BRICS membership. If BRICS is attractive to other countries, for example the Emirates or Saudi Arabia or Türkiye, why should it be any different for Serbia? There is no doubt that the BRICS has become a real alternative to the EU.”
In a recent video, I shared several important interview clips to provide further background on the growing frustration and disfunction within the E.U., as well as my perspective on the BRICS+ vs. E.U. competition.
also, the video is up on Rumble and Patreon (ads free!).
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More and more, the west is seeing countries from Eurasia making this move towards the east as they grow more frustrated with the west. The EU is shooting itself in both feet and when NATO collapses, so will the EU Bloc. There are already some serious fractures and they will only become wider as time moves on. I foresee countries like Hungary, Serbia, Turkiye and many others leave NATO and the EU for a a more lucrative BRICS alliance within a very few years. Italy is teetering with their differences with the EU lately. There is a real possibility of a new world economic model coming very soon that will exclude the west, notable, the western EU countries and the U.S. Multiple people much more astute in these things than I am are predicting this. I tend to believe them, give how badly the U.S. capitalist model is failing badly now.