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Why Europe Cannot Afford To Get It Wrong On The Western Balkans

This article is more than 4 years old.

With one member down since Brexit, Europe is doing all it can to get its eastern neighbours on side as part of its enlargement plans.

Trying to break a deadlock for the six Western Balkan countries joining the bloc, the European Commission on February 5 announced a series of changes to the system for letting new countries into the group to placate France.

Meeting the demands of French President Emmanuel Macron, part of the new proposals would give current members the power to pause the process of joining the bloc and could even make countries restart entry talks.

The proposals were forced by France, which sparked a huge backlash in October after it blocked enlargement talks with Albania and North Macedonia.

Denmark and the Netherlands also sided with France and said corruption and organized crime remained an issue in Albania.

Top EU officials called it a “historic mistake” at the time, while North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev warned that China and Russian would “fill in the vacuum” the EU had left.

A long wait

In a declaration signed in 2003 in Greece, the EU said it viewed Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro, as “potential candidates” and promised they could one day join.

But 16 years on, only Croatia has joined the bloc when it became the 28th member in 2013.

“This is a geostrategic investment we all need to make, we hope member states will be partners in this," said the EU’s Commissioner for enlargement Olivér Várhelyi.

He said that the EU still aims to admit the six Balkan countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

French approval

But the proposals will need to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states before a summit with the Balkan six in May. So far it appears that France will back the new system.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” an Elysee official told Reuters. “There’s a real change of methodology that is being proposed. It’s an important and positive one.”

Another proposed change is for an increase in the number of summits in the Balkans, which would give ministers more say over the process, but could also arguably strengthen ties between Brussels and its eastern neighbors.

‘A catastrophic choice’

The interdependence between the EU and the Balkans goes beyond geographic proximity and has been underscored more recently by the financial, economic, and refugee/migration crises, said Corina Stratulat, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank.

The Balkans and EU also share the same problems and interests when it comes to geopolitical instability in the region and the unpredictability of big global players, terrorism, radicalization, and organized crime, Stratulat added.

“To think that the EU can disengage from the Balkans is, therefore, an illusion, not to mention a catastrophic choice, including for the Union’s ambitions of being a global player,” she said.