OPEN LETTER FROM SERBIA TO VON DER LEYEN: 118 professors and researchers address the President of the European Commission!

Around 120 professors and researchers from Serbia’s academic community (118 of them) sent an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, ahead of her possible visit to Serbia.

As Nova.rs reported earlier, the President of the European Commission will visit Serbia in October as part of her several-day tour of the Western Balkans.

We are publishing the full letter from the professors and researchers below.

“Dear Madam President,

We, professors and researchers from Serbia’s academic community, are writing to you with a firm belief in the rule of law, democratic accountability, free and fair elections, and pluralism of free media – principles that lie at the heart of the European Union. They are essential when citizens are expected to make informed decisions, hold those in power accountable, and freely decide on the future of their country.

The reports of your possible visit to Serbia in October have therefore drawn our attention.

We are aware that it may have been planned long before the announcement of our parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, if the elections are held at the end of October, your visit could coincide with the final stage of the campaign. In Serbia’s current political and media environment, the question is not only what significance this visit has for you, but also what meaning could be imposed upon it.

International observers and European institutions have already documented, on several occasions, a highly unequal electoral playing field in Serbia, including covert forms of campaigning carried out by the state apparatus and ruling parties, misuse of public resources, pressure on public-sector employees, and the drastic suppression of media pluralism.

Under such circumstances, images of the President of the European Commission meeting with President Aleksandar Vučić immediately before the elections could be used by media close to the ruling party to send the message: ‘Europe supports the current government.’

We are convinced that this is not your intention.

However, convictions alone are not enough to prevent such abuse.

During your visit to Belgrade in October 2025, you called for ‘strong, pronounced and effective democracy,’ progress in terms of the ‘rule of law, electoral conditions and media freedoms,’ and stressed that ‘implementation is key’ and must lead to ‘change on the ground.’ Since then, some procedural steps have indeed been taken, but they have not led to such changes.

In several key areas, on the contrary, there has been further backsliding. The Commission itself also assessed and documented in 2026 additional political pressure on the judiciary and prosecution, expressed serious concern over political and economic influence on the media and the further endangerment of journalists’ safety. During the same visit, you also stressed that the EU stands for freedom, not deprivation of rights, including the right to peaceful assembly.

After more than a year of civic protests, that principle remains equally important today.

If you were to visit Serbia during the pre-election campaign, we ask you to highlight these issues as part of your program and make them an official message of your visit, as well as to remind everyone of the standards already expressed by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the OSCE/ODIHR.

This is particularly important after representatives of the European Parliament themselves became targets of hostile rhetoric from senior Serbian officials for expressing concern about democracy and the integrity of electoral processes.

We also encourage you, as during your previous visit, to engage with representatives of different sectors of Serbian society, such as: citizens, independent media, universities and the academic community, and others concerned about the democratic nature of institutions. Listening does not mean giving support.

Just as democratic pluralism does not imply allegiance to a particular party.

Such engagement would show that the European Union sees Serbia as more than its current government.

We also call on you to visit the railway station in Novi Sad and pay tribute to the victims of the fallen canopy.

Such a gesture would not be an act of support for any political actor. It would simply affirm something fundamental: that human life, truth and accountability matter. We also hope that you will publicly express your expectation that Serbian institutions provide full, independent and credible answers regarding how this tragedy occurred and who is responsible for it.

We hope you will clearly emphasize that the EU remains ready to cooperate with Serbia and support its democratic and institutional development. The rule of law, free and fair elections, independent institutions and free media are essential values for the citizens of Serbia, regardless of the further course or final outcome of EU accession.

They must never become a secondary or short-term factor of political stability.

A government that maintains its stability by preventing citizens from removing it is not the kind of stability upon which a democratic Europe should be built.

Dear Madam President, we are not asking you to support the student movement, the opposition or any electoral list. We are asking you not to support anyone.

Whoever governs Serbia should be elected by the will of its citizens in free and fair elections. We ask you to take all necessary steps to prevent your institutional authority from being appropriated by any participant in the electoral race and to avoid actions or announcements that could be misused as electoral support.

No election outcome can be considered democratically legitimate if citizens did not have a genuine opportunity to choose fairly and according to their free will. We therefore ask you to make it clear that the EU will assess the credibility of any election outcome not only on the basis of officially announced results, but also according to whether citizens were genuinely able to freely and fairly express their political will on an equal footing.

If the timing and circumstances of the campaign are not conducive to protecting your visit from such instrumentalization, we kindly ask you to consider postponing it until after the elections. Europe should not choose for Serbia. The citizens of Serbia should do that.

Sincerely,

Professors and researchers, members of Serbia’s academic community,” the letter states.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also visit Serbia during her several-day tour of the Western Balkans in October, Nova.rs has learned unofficially.

The visit is part of the European Commission President’s regular tour of Western Balkan countries, which she undertakes almost every year, Nova.rs was told by diplomatic sources.

If the elections in Serbia are held on October 25, the date Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has mentioned as a possible election day, Ursula von der Leyen’s visit would coincide with the height of the pre-election campaign.

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