European Policy Centre Hosted Panel Discussion on Serbian Citizens’ Attitudes Toward the EU

Belgrade, June 1, 2026

The European Policy Centre (CEP), with the support of the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hosted a panel discussion entitled “Serbia and the European Union: Geopolitics and Values – In Conflict or in Tandem?”, which took place on June 1, 2026 at the European House in Belgrade.

The event was dedicated to presenting the findings of a comprehensive research project on the attitudes of Serbian citizens toward the European Union at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty. The research was conducted by the Ninamedia agency on behalf of CEP, using the face-to-face interview method (TAPI), on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents across the territory of the Republic of Serbia, excluding Kosovo*. Data was collected between January 19 and February 2, 2026, with post-stratification controls applied for gender, age, education, settlement type, and region, as well as validity checks on 20% of the sample.

Building on the quantitative research and statistical modeling of factors influencing citizens’ support for Serbia’s EU membership, CEP researchers also conducted two focus groups that provided qualitative interpretation of the statistical findings.

The panel discussion addressed questions of key importance for understanding the current state of public opinion in Serbia: whether a social consensus exists on the country’s European path, how much citizens trust the EU as a partner, and to what extent their attitudes are driven by the perception of interests rather than values.

The panel featured the following speakers:

• H.E. Kevin Colgan, Ambassador of Ireland to the Republic of Serbia
• H.E. Andreas von Beckerath, Head of Delegation and EU Ambassador to Serbia
• Marko Todorović, Senior Researcher, Center for European Policies (CEP)
• Ana Milinković, Senior Researcher, Center for European Policies (CEP)
• Milena Mihajlović Denić, Program Director, Center for European Policies (CEP)

Find the research results here.

Find the livestream recording of the event here.