President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 in an interview for \u201cS\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung\u201d spoke about energy supply, tensions between Belgrade and Moscow, turmoil in Serbia, as well as the idea that Serbia could enter the EU, but without voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything is getting harder for us,\u201d says Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, describing the situation with energy supplies. \u201cOil prices on Mediterranean markets have increased by 15 percent in just the last two days, that is madness. The situation with gas is similar,\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107 said, as reported by DW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the crisis for Serbia, Tobias Zick, a journalist of the newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung who conducted the interview, reminds him, began long before the Iranian war \u2013 with American sanctions against the Oil Industry of Serbia, majority-owned by the Russian Gazprom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 confirms that this significantly slowed Serbia\u2019s economic growth. At the same time, he says he is grateful to the EU and the team of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen: \u201cWe talked with them about which new pipelines to various neighboring countries we should build by 2035. We will invest significant funds in our energy infrastructure and in that we have the full support of the European Union,\u201d says the president of Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that context, he also admits that relations with Moscow have cooled. During negotiations on the ownership structure in NIS, as he states, threats of cutting off gas supplies came from Russia, while Russian media \u201cattacked him more harshly than many Western leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTraditionally we had good and friendly relations, but now I simply had to protect the national interests of Serbia. We are not anyone\u2019s puppets,\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107 says for the German newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belgrade, he explains, ultimately agreed to a model according to which part of the company would be taken over by the Hungarian Mol and the Emirati company Adnoc, while Serbia would increase its ownership share from 29.87 to 34.87 percent. \u201cThat gives us better control mechanisms and greater oversight over financial decisions,\u201d says Vu\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n