"Nobody has guaranteed us EU, people are no longer jubilant"

The broadcaster's Sandor Zsiros recalled that Vucic told Euronews two year ago Serbia was "tired of waiting for European Union accession," and asked, "How do you feel now, before the Sofia summit?"

"During these two years, we had another drop of EU popularity in Serbia. But anyway, we still have the majority of the population on our side. People are not jubilant anymore about it, but, rationally speaking, they are for our EU path," Vucic said.

According to Euronews, "Serbia, along with Montenegro, is likely to be the next country to join the European Union, possibly by 2025 - the EU hopes Belgrade's influence in the Balkans could help other aspirant members reform, but it is not all plain sailing."

Asked when Serbia could join the EU, considering that the European Commission's budget proposal contains "no indication" of enlargement by 2027, Vucic replied:

"First of all, I think that no one has ever guaranteed us that we would be a part of the European Union in 2025. But they were saying: 'If you deliver...' It was mainly about the Kosovo arrangement. 'If you resolve all our problems with Pristina' and than everything else including the rule of law and everything that we are asked to do, then we might become a member of the EU in 2025. And we are on our EU path since 2000. It has already passed 18 years and that's why people feel, from time to time, exhausted. But anyway there are no better solutions. We will do our job. And we will invest huge efforts, attempting to find a solution for the Kosovo crisis."

Asked what normalization between Pristina and Belgrade would look in reality, "especially when you look at the fact that last week the Kosovo karate team was actually banned from Serbia," he said that Serbia in...