The FINANCIAL — Leaders of the European Union have urged their Western Balkan counterparts at a summit in Bulgaria to keep up the pace of reforms but stopped short of indicating if any of the six countries in the region would join the 28-member bloc in the near future.
The summit in Sofia on May 17, the first of its kind in 15 years, focuses on the efforts of the six — Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania — toward closer integration with the 28-member bloc rather than effective membership.
“There is a European perspective, which will be confirmed today. But what we said a few months ago still counts: the whole process is merit-based, so every country needs to do its homework and then there is a European perspective,” EU Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn told reporters ahead of the summit.
“All countries have the same perspective and starting point, but progress is individual so it depends on the individual country how quickly they progress towards Europe,” he added.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country will take over the EU’s rotating, six-month presidency on July 1, said there was “a good perspective for the Western Balkans.”
“Our goal is to support all these countries on their path towards the European Union…our [Austria’s] clear goal is to have progress on the path towards the European Union during this time,” Kurz said.
In 2004, the EU offered membership to 10 mostly Central and Eastern European countries, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, while Croatia became the latest EU member in 2013.
New members like Poland and Hungary have absorbed tens of billions of euros in EU funds, developing their infrastructure and economies, but later rejected shouldering the costs of sheltering refugees. Both countries have also taken steps seen as undermining the independence of their justice systems and the free media.
French President Emmanuel Macron, upon arrival for the summit, voiced skepticism about hastily admitting new members, according to RFE/RL.
“The last 15 years have shown a path that has weakened Europe by thinking all the time that it should be enlarged,” he told reporters in Sofia on May 17.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that “Europe must be deeply reformed to function better, to be more efficient, and at the same time the Balkan countries have to reform their ways of functioning; more stability, more security, more respect for the rule of law.”
On May 16, European Council President Donald Tusk told a meeting of EU leaders in Sofia that Brussels must help the Western Balkans develop and consolidate both better infrastructure and more efficient institutions.
“We want to demonstrate that we care about socioeconomic development in the region here and now,” Tusk said. “Investing in infrastructural and human connections with and within the Western Balkans is in the EU’s best interest. And it will be the objective of our summit.”
Tusk said the EU must impress upon Balkan leaders that the 28-member bloc remains their best “geostrategic choice.”
“I am convinced that the EU is the only partner that cares genuinely about the stability of the entire region and a prosperous future for its peoples – as opposed to treating it as a geopolitical game of chess, in which the people are pawns,” Tusk wrote in a letter to EU leaders, alluding to the EU’s competition with Russia for influence in the region.
During the summit, the EU is expected to commit to investing in infrastructure to increase connectivity with the Western Balkans.
The discussions will be delicate, however, as some EU countries are wary of further expanding the bloc. Also, five EU countries do not recognize Kosovo, the former Serbian republic that declared independence in 2008.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is staying away from the summit in protest because of his country’s opposition to Kosovo’s independence.
According to diplomats who spoke to RFE/RL, some of the five countries that do not recognize Kosovo were unhappy about calling the final statement of the summit a “declaration” and would prefer to call it the “Bulgarian Presidency conclusions,” or even to produce a declaration endorsed only by the EU but not by the six Western Balkan countries.
The diplomats spoke to RFE/RL last month on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.
According to a draft statement seen by RFE/RL, the agreed compromise is that it would be called “the Sofia declaration” but with a statement in brackets, after the 16 points of the declaration, saying that “we note that our Western Balkans partners align themselves with the above points.”
The six Western Balkan countries are not mentioned by name and are referred to as “partners,” as supposed to “states” or “countries,” in an apparent effort to ease concerns about the reference to Kosovo’s status.
With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, Reuters, AFP, and dpa
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