EU enlargement commissioner cancels Serbia visit over Mladić honours

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos cancelled her planned visit to Serbia on Friday, citing the official reception given to the remains of Ratko Mladić and the public glorification that has followed his death.

“Ratko Mladić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The return of his remains to Belgrade reminds Europe of the darkest pages in our recent history,” Kos wrote. “The glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built. That path requires confronting the past, genuine reconciliation and respecting the victims of war crimes. The values that underpin our common future are not negotiable.” She added that she would not proceed with the visit “at this time.”

The announcement came a day after a Serbian government plane brought Mladić’s coffin from The Hague to Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport. The casket, draped in the Serbian flag, was carried from the aircraft by six soldiers. Justice Minister Nenad Vujić and Mladić’s son Darko accompanied the remains. An army honour guard and a police motorcade then took the body to the Military Medical Academy for an autopsy.

Along the route, groups of supporters gathered on highway overpasses, holding banners that hailed “the General” and lighting flares as the convoy passed. Pro-government television broadcast the scenes live.

Mladić died on 27 August at the age of 84 in the UN detention unit in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence imposed in 2017 and upheld on appeal in 2021. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals ordered an inquiry into the circumstances of his death; Dutch authorities opened their own standard investigation. Serbian officials had previously sought his transfer to Serbia to die, a request the court refused. President Aleksandar Vučić accused the tribunal of wanting Mladić “to die behind bars.”

In the hours after the death, Vujić said Mladić would receive “all the military and state honours to which he is entitled” as a general, with protocols “known.” Vučić later struck a more cautious note, saying the family would decide the arrangements and that the state would provide “logistical, transport and other support” plus security. A government official told Politico that Saturday’s commemoration at the House of the Army is being organised by the Association of Retired Generals rather than the defence ministry, and that Mladić will not be buried in the Alley of the Greats. His son Darko said the coffin will lie in a Belgrade church on Monday morning before burial at Topčider Cemetery beside his daughter. Vučić has said intelligence and police estimates put possible attendance in the tens of thousands.

Other European officials have added their own warnings. Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne, whose country holds the EU presidency, said a state funeral “would be unacceptable” and that even senior government figures memorialising Mladić “is not acceptable.” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot condemned military honours as “shameful and disrespectful” to victims and said he had raised the issue with Serbia’s minister for European affairs. Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty strongly condemned the public glorification, including statements by officials in Serbia and Republika Srpska, calling it an insult to victims. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković had already warned that burying Mladić with the highest honours would be “the equivalent of slamming the door to the European Union yourself.”

Croatian PM: Serbia will close its path to the EU if it buries war criminal Ratko Mladić with honours

Kos, speaking earlier in Dublin before cancelling the trip, called the coming days “a very important test” for how member states evaluate Serbia, not only on technical accession chapters but on alignment with European values and the EU’s common foreign and security policy. Serbia’s talks have already been strained; the Commission froze reform and growth funding earlier this year over rule-of-law concerns. The funeral and the official choreography around it now sit at the centre of that assessment.

Serbian nationalist glorification of #Mladić is not limited to Serbia. In North Macedonia, government officials, Minister Ivan Stoilković & Community Rights director Dalibor Kitanović, have demonstrated public praisment and glorification which the Government failed to sanctioned… https://t.co/yzqoo2iBYP
— Bujar Osmani (@Bujar_O) September 4, 2026

Caption: A convoy of vehicles, escorted by police, carrying the coffin of deceased Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic leaves Belgrade Airport, in Belgrade, Serbia, 03 September 2026. Former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic who was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2017 died on 27 August 2026 at the age of 84. EPA/MARKO DJOKOVIC