Constitutional Court president Vladan Petrov: “I criticized the Brussels Agreement, but now I understand its profound importance”

The president of Serbia’s Constitutional Court, Vladan Petrov, has publicly admitted that he was among the early critics of the first Brussels Agreement of 2013, but that over the years he has come to understand the depth of its importance — Petrov stated in an interview for Radio Belgrade, as snm.rs relays.

“The first Brussels Agreement was, from many points of view, strictly speaking, debatable from the standpoint of our Constitution and constitutionality”, Petrov said. However, he added, “from the standpoint of the broader constitutional and state interest, in my view, it withstood the weight and the test of time” — the head of the Serbian Constitutional Court underlined, according to the newspaper Danas’s reporting on September 30, 2026.

Petrov emphasized that Serbia signed the agreement with the European Union, not with Pristina, and that this fact should be reminded especially to young people, so that the wrong impression is not created that this is an agreement between two equal parties.

As an important lesson for the future, he said: “When something important is signed, care must also be taken with whom it is signed, because the fact that someone is an obvious guarantor or seems well-intentioned does not mean that what was signed will be implemented by the other party”, Radio Belgrade quoted.

He also admitted that at the time of signing he had not been fully ready to understand the depth of the agreement: “Now, as a man with a certain experience, I would be ready to say that it was necessary to conclude such an agreement, even if only for it to stand, and perhaps, in more favorable geopolitical circumstances, for it nevertheless to be realized.” The Brussels Agreement, signed in April 2013, is the basic document of the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue and also envisages the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, which has never been formed.