Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Why Serbia Cannot Decide Between East and West" video.

  1. In a way yes, but that dancing act is holding Serbia back, after all, Serbia is in one of the best positions to join the EU and probably could have been a member by now, so that dancing act is holding back the economy, after all, Serbia is one of the poorest countries in Europe, that balancing act of playing all sides also means Serbia is being used by many of these sides for political gains. Either way, the eastern EU countries and countries that want to join the EU will likely pull ahead of countries that play games. So no, Serbia isn't playing this game smart, they are playing themselves, thinking they are playing the others, after all, China and Russia are using them to score points against the west, the US likely doesn't care about Serbia, but the EU, if Serbia becomes a member, would propel its economy that would have a big impact on living standards for all its citizens, so the one that's being played here is Serbia and I wonder how long it will take before they realise that, probably as other countries join the EU and there economy develops faster, or as the eastern EU countries continue to pull away from them in economic development.
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  2. The problem is with Serbia is that it's trying to play all sides for its own interest, Russia and China don't care about Serbia policies in a lot of areas because they don't care how the government in Serbia treats its own citizens, this is more of a game about empowering the government, not the people. The EU on the other hand have a proven track record of empowering the people, whiles lifting living standards, so the real question is, which is more important, the people or the government in the country? Either way, from the EU's point of view, it doesn't really matter, the EU knows that as the eastern EU members continue to develop, it puts more pressure on the countries outside the EU to want to join, mainly because they want to develop into a modern country, China and Russia can't do the same thing because they can't even develop their own countries, at least not on a per capita basis, which is what really matters to the average citizen of any country. So basically, all the EU needs to keep doing is developing the countries that are in, whiles allowing others in overtime and develop them, that has a massive knock on effect that others will want to join, the countries that play games or drag their feet, they are only hurting their own citizens, in fact, we see that even inside the EU, the countries that do the reforms sooner rather than later, benefit from economic growth and investment, hence why you even see it with EU countries how some develop faster than others or how some join sooner than others. As for Serbia, they must be crazy to want to be too dependent on Russia or China, you know that will bite them on the arse at some point which could leave the country at the mercy or one or both of those countries, but those are the kinds of lessons that need to happen for people to learn and change, just like the UK with Brexit, arrogance got the best of them, and now they are paying a high price for that arrogance that could drag on for decades. Either way, countries that want to join the EU, the sooner they do the reforms to join, the better off those countries will be, and not just for joining, but also whiles in the EU, in other words, the eastern EU members, that's how they can close the gap sooner rather than later with the rest of the modern world.
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