Key findings from relevant reports examined in context

Ratko Mladić, convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, was buried in Belgrade with military honours on 7 September 2026, in the presence of five serving Serbian government ministers and the president's son. The European External Action Service, Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, Roberta Metsola and Manfred Weber condemned the official support and the public glorification of a convicted war criminal, describing it as incompatible with the values underpinning Serbia's EU path. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos had already called off her planned visit to Serbia.

Following ODIHR's 30 July 2026 needs assessment report, CRTA read its findings against its own monitoring and its June 2026 public opinion survey. On the electoral laws, the media regulator and the voter register, the ODIHR report independently confirms problems CRTA has documented throughout the 2026 reform cycle. The survey shows the same concerns among citizens: trust in the government, parliament and parties at or below a third, and 55% saying the March 2026 local elections were not free and fair.

On 30 July 2026, ODIHR published the report of its Needs Assessment Mission to Serbia and recommended deploying a full Election Observation Mission for the anticipated early elections, with a core team of analysts, 32 long-term observers and 300 short-term observers, plus media monitoring and an assessment of disinformation and foreign and domestic interference. It is the largest full-scale mission ODIHR has proposed for Serbia since 2012, larger than the missions deployed in 2022 and 2023, reflecting the concerns interlocutors raised about a highly polarised pre-election environment.