Ongoing accession process of Serbia to the EU
Accession of Serbia to the European Union Status Candidate negotiating
Application
European perspective 21 June 2003 Potential candidate 21 June 2003 Membership application 22 December 2009 Candidate status 1 March 2012 Screened & negotiations commence 25 March 2015
Clusters open 0 Chapters open 0 Clusters closed 0 Chapters closed 0† † Chapter 25 – Science and research and Chapter 26 – Education and culture are provisionally closed. Chapter 34 - Institutions is currently not applicable.
(27+1)
Population 446,828,803 455,052,321 1.5% Area 4,233,262 km2 1,634,472 mi2 4,310,736 km2 1,664,385 mi2 1.8% (excluding Kosovo ) HDI 0.896 0.890 0.67% GDP (PPP )$25.399 trillion $25.572 trillion 0.68% GDP per capita (PPP) $56,928 $56,196 1.29% GDP $17.818 trillion $17.256 trillion 0.4% GDP per capita $39,940 $37,920 5.3% Gini 30.0 30.1 0.39% Official Languages 24 25 Serbian 1
Serbia applied to join the European Union (EU) in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012, along with nine other states . Serbia is the largest country in Southeast Europe seeking entry into the EU.[ 4] [ 5] [ 6]
A poll in June 2023 found that only 33% of Serbs wanted to join the EU.[ 7] Obstacles for accession include the requirement to recognize statehood for Kosovo , foreign policy alignment with Russia , democratic backsliding including allegations of fraud in elections in December 2023, and domestic policies such as rule of law and media freedom.[ 8] [ 5] [ 9]