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Mr Juncker said to the US Vice President Mike Pence last month: If we leave them alone - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Macedonia, Albania, all those countries we will have war again.

Many people are resisting the new Serbian President Aleksander Vucic with daily, mass anti-government protests, claiming the election was rigged.

Opposition groups have alleged a crackdown on the media during the campaign and even election day bribes.

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Adrian Callaghan/Daily Express

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I child makes the sign of peace inside a refugee camp, Serbia

f we leave them alone - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Macedonia, Albania, all those countries we will have war again

Jean-Claude Juncker

However, the newly-elected Serbian President is seen by the EU as the nations access to the bloc.

The EU is concerned about Russias expanding influence in the Balkans, particularly after the Kremlins gift of war planes and tanks.

Serbia is suffering from high unemployment with a slow-growing economy, which is leaving many people to a life of poverty.

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His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) gained power in 2012 on the promise of gaining EU membership, when 70 per cent of Serbs wanted to join the Union.

In Serbia, the GDP per capita was 4,564 in 2015 compared to more than 28,000 as an average for the rest of the countries in the EU.

According to a political analyst for the Open Society European Policy Institute European, only 43 per cent of people in Serbia want to join the EU with 35 per cent of people against becoming a member.

However, the US ambassador to Serbia, Kyle Scott, has said that Belgrade is moving closer to the European Union.

Serbia officially started its entry talks with the EU in January 2014.

The EU wants a proposal agreed in July to re-engage with the Balkans and to ensure they are not overly exposed to the growing influence of Russia.

Many Serbs view Western European countries as advocates of the 1999 NATO bombing to stop the killing of ethnic Albanians in the former province of Kosovo.

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REVEALED: How Western Balkans is the melting pot that could DESTROY the EU... - Express.co.uk