Brussels, 02/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a letter dated Friday 31 August which was sent to European Council President Donald Tusk, the presidents of Croatia and Slovenia - Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Borut Pahor - have proposed that a European summit be organised in 2016 to reaffirm the EU's commitment to enlarging to the Western Balkans countries.
In this letter, of which EUROPE has obtained a copy, the presidents state that the Balkans region is a “crucial element of the European project”. “Delaying the process of enlargement in combination with the economic crisis and current global security problems has made the region more vulnerable to the external factors of destabilisation”, Grabar-Kitarovic and Pahor add.
The letter also states that the EU integration process is “the first long-term guarantee of the region's stability and development”, which is why this process must not “become a simple technical exercise”.
On 1 September Tusk, who is this week visiting Slovenia and Croatia, publicly thanked the two presidents for their letter, saying that enlargement, “despite the reigning atmosphere of a sort of enlargement fatigue”, “should remain a strong priority for the European Union”.
Montenegro and Serbia have opened their accession negotiations, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Albania are accession candidates. Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina are potential candidates. All these countries should be invited to the summit in 2016. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)