EU condemns official tributes to Ratko Mladić in Belgrade

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have strongly condemned the glorification of Ratko Mladić during his funeral ceremony in Belgrade, which was also attended by senior Serbian officials.

In a joint statement published on the social network X on Monday, the two senior European Union representatives described the images from the funeral as “shocking.”

According to them, Mladić was a convicted war criminal responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

They emphasized that the former Serbian commander died while serving a life sentence imposed for the genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes.

Costa and von der Leyen described as deeply painful the fact that the funeral was accompanied by official support and the presence of several senior Serbian officials.

“These images show that there has been no reckoning with a dark chapter in Europe’s recent history and are contrary to the values guiding Serbia’s path toward the European Union,” their statement said.

The two European officials also expressed their solidarity with all the victims of crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Paula Pinho, the chief spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also commented on the images from the ceremony.

“Following our midday briefing yesterday, the images from the funeral spoke louder than a million words,” she said.