I should have written "for some European perspective". Croatia and Serbia are both part of Europe.

I didn't want to imply this was anyhow tied to Brussels.

It is entirely outside of the EU until it's a member country. Serbia doesn't have any special status like Switzerland or Norway that are closer to the EU even if they are not members, and anyway the leadership of Serbia is currently closer to Russia than to the EU.

Technically you're of course correct.

Though my point was that as someone who's moved into a EU country, it might not be entirely clear that it's not inside EU, given it's proximity and that they might have read about it in an EU context given its status.

Heck I'm in Norway and had to check to make sure I was right.

Of course, second time around there's no excuse.