Serbia: European, but not in the EU yet

After postings in The Hague, Cairo, Riyadh, Rome, Baghdad, Islamabad and Nairobi, Joost Reintjes’ duty station is now Belgrade, where he’s based as the Dutch ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro. Both countries aim to become EU member states. While the great majority of Montenegro’s population is pro-EU, however, in Serbia less than half is. Reintjes hopes to help change this: ‘EU membership has so many benefits.’

Ambassador Joost Reintjes. Image: ©Dutch embassy Belgrade

You’ve been the Dutch ambassador to Belgrade since 2021. What was your first impression of Serbia?

‘My first impression was shaped by the fact that my wife and I moved to Belgrade in the middle of the pandemic. In Leipzig and Budapest the hotels and restaurants had been empty or closed early, but in Belgrade the pavement cafés at hotels and restaurants were full and the streets were busy. It had been twenty years since I had last been in Serbia – passing through by car on the way to a posting in Baghdad – and I didn’t know what to expect. But this time Belgrade struck me as a real European city. The banks, offices, shops and cars all felt European.
‘Before I became ambassador here I worked for five months or so in Moscow, and I had expected similar architecture in Belgrade, but that was only partly true. What did make me think of Eastern Europe in the 1980s was the smell of burning coal. That’s still used a lot for heating here, and you smell it. It’s a nostalgic scent for me, which I remember from my trips to East Germany as a student; that same smell was in the air in East Berlin and other cities of the GDR. It also struck me that Serbs are fairly direct, somewhat like the reputation Dutch people have. I like that.’

What topics are important for the Dutch embassy in Belgrade?

‘The war in Ukraine is a major issue. Russia has considerable influence in Serbia, and its propaganda is widely disseminated in Serbia. At the same time, Serbia wants to join the EU. But the government has its own agenda about this. This partly reflects lack of interest among ordinary Serbs: fewer than 50% of them currently favour EU membership. The government, which controls the media, feeds this sentiment. Things are very different in Montenegro, a neighbour that’s also an EU candidate country: there, 90% of the population support EU membership.
‘Apart from political work, the embassy spends a lot of time on trade promotion. The Dutch-Belgian retail chain Ahold-Delhaize is the biggest private employer here, with almost 20,000 employees. And the volume of Dutch investments just keeps increasing, as does trade. Not many people know that about 500 Dutch companies do business in Serbia. But only a handful are active in Montenegro, a NATO member that only has 630,000 consumers. We help entrepreneurs navigate the legal and regulatory systems and help them network.’

The volume of Dutch investments just keeps increasing, as does trade. Not many people know that about 500 Dutch companies do business in Serbia.

Mr Reintjes cycling in Belgrade. Image: ©Jadranka Ilic
‘Human rights and the rule of law are other issues we work on here. Serbia will need to meet a number of conditions before it can join the EU, like reforming the situation with regard to media freedom and the administration of justice. We’ve been investing in this for years through the MATRA programme. MATRA began as a programme targeting countries on the EU’s borders, aimed at helping build strong, pluralist civil societies. Now it’s meant to help strengthen civil society organisations, democracy and the rule of law in all EU candidate countries and Eastern Partnership countries.  
‘And we are vocal about LGBTIQ+ rights. This is a sensitive issue in Serbia. Rural areas in particular are traditional and the Orthodox Church has a lot of influence. Other embassy staff and I join the Pride march each year in Belgrade to show our support to the community.’

What would you like to achieve in your remaining time as ambassador?

‘I would like to help persuade more Serbs to support EU accession. As I said, there’s a lot of room for improvement in the level of popular support for the EU. I have seen that conversations and personal contacts can help. The Serbian Minister of European Integration has already been in the Netherlands twice this year for talks. That’s no accident: not only is the Netherlands engaged in this process, we’re fairly strict about Serbian compliance with the conditions for joining the EU. Dutch Prime Minister Rutte was here this past summer. All-in all, I think that these contacts and talks are gradually moving the process forward.’