>It seems Serbia is trying to become an EU member. I would have thought this sort of thing would be (if widespread) cause for summary dismissal from consideration.
>
>Or maybe the EU is less discriminating than I thought...

The latest invention of the EU is stabilocracy - we'll tolerate any dictatorship or other ways of accumulating power, as long as you guys there don't fight among yourselves, let our corporations and banks own whatever they want, let them syphon out the profits and keep the rest as a sufficiently plausible pretense. Just look at Croatia, Hungary, Romania.

>https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/news/serbia-faces-tough-reforms-remains-track-eu-membership
>
>"While overhauling Serbia's economy was the biggest challenge, she said there are other key issues, such as the rule of law, including the judiciary, police and public administration."
>
>The rule of law is still an issue? Have there been no improvements since the start of the accession process?

See the above. Thorough improvements were made, there was a lot of progress - i.e. going forward, but nobody likes the direction of it. They pay a lot of attention to rehabilitating various shady figures from WWII because they were tried by an, ah, communist court, which can't be legal. OTOH they don't prosecute outright obvious crimes, like 26 suspicious privatizations, big corporations not paying any taxes, or downright vehicular manslaughter caught on 20 cameras, when committed by a tycoon's son.

>https://www.transparency.org/country/SRB
>
>Tied with Burkina Faso, of all places: http://issuu.com/transparencyinternational/docs/2016_cpireport_en?e=2496456/43483458

Toldya.