EU enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi has sharply rebuked recent attempts to celebrate the legacy of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military leader convicted of genocide and war crimes. Varhelyi warned that any “glorification” of Mladic runs counter to the core values of the European Union, including respect for human rights and the rule of law, and could jeopardise the Western Balkans’ path toward EU membership. He urged Balkan governments and civil societies to reject revisionist narratives and to uphold the memory of the victims of the 1990s conflicts. The statement comes amid growing political tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where nationalist factions have been pushing for the rehabilitation of wartime figures, sparking concern in Brussels about the region’s democratic trajectory.
EU enlargement chief condemns Ratko Mladic ‘glorification’ as incompatible with European values.
