During a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, the Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations took stock, with EUROPE, of relations between the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and Turkey with the EU. All these countries are destined to join the European Union one day. (words recorded by Camille-Cerise Gessant)
Agence Europe - How can we maintain the European momentum in the Western Balkans, when some countries, such as France, do not seem very keen to open negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania?
Johannes Hahn - The most convincing argument is to point to the fact that there is no alternative to the integration of the Western Balkans, because it is in the EU’s own strategic interest. “Either we export stability or we import instability”. This is a region where many people have left. Those who stay are often elderly people and those with few perspectives. If countries were depending on the remittances, that’s not healthy and not what we would like to see.
Moreover, if there were some kind of vacuum, some other major power would fill it. There is always – in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina is such a possible case – a risk that radical forces, religious fundamentalists or others target young people, and this creates a risk for us.
On the other hand, one should not forget that the whole region is inside Europe. These are really emerging markets which offer a lot of opportunities for the business sector in the EU. We are talking about 18 million people who are not yet members of the Union.
And finally, embracing them in a good way is the best guarantee having peace and stability.
I hope we can convince politicians in France, but also in some other countries which are a little bit reluctant about this issue.
Do you think the EU is keeping its promises with all the countries of the Western Balkans?
We have to see what are the reactions after the publication of the European Commission reports. I hope that there will be a positive reaction by our Member States, because it's ultimately about our credibility.
If we are asking our partner countries in the Western Balkans for hard reforms and progress in crucial areas and they deliver, and then we are not delivering, we would lose not only our credibility, but also our political leverage.
And very often it's the same people criticising, for instance, the influence from Russia, China or Turkey in the Balkans who are reluctant to acknowledge progress in the Western Balkans towards the EU.
According to the Bosnian Minister of Commerce, all the Western Balkans should join the EU at the same time. Do you think it would be a good idea for their membership to be in the form of a package?
The accession process is a regatta, not a convoy. The whole process is based on individual merits. If a country makes good and quick progress it should not be hindered by the others. But it's good to have this regional competition which so far I consider as a positive one.
The only cautionary measure we will apply is that the future members will have a specific clause in their accession treaties that they cannot veto other countries in the region getting EU membership once they have fulfilled all criteria.
How complicated is it to deal with Kosovo when five Member States still do not recognise it as an independent state?
I am deeply convinced that as soon as there is a positive outcome in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo leading to a legally binding agreement, this will be acknowledged by Member States.
We were talking about the dialogue. At the moment, with the customs duties imposed by Kosovo, there is no dialogue. Is it dead?
It is temporarily at a standstill.
But it could be a long standstill...
It's hard to predict. On our side, we were always talking about a window of opportunity, and this is probably until summer. Afterwards, we will be pretty much occupied by the reshuffle of the EU institutions.
These tariffs are against the spirit of the regional economic area we created two years ago. The idea of this area is to prepare the countries of the region for the single market. Today, they have created artificial barriers, formal and informal ones. Almost everybody is complaining about the duration of stay at border controls and this is exactly what we would like to address. But all this can only work if all six agree on it, if one or two are not participating the regional economic area won’t work.
The tariffs are also against CEFTA and the Kosovo’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. This is why the EU and also our partners in the US have called on Kosovo to abolish the tariffs.
We see information about the problems between the opposition and governments in these countries. How do you explain to them that cooperation between the two sides is important?
It’s about a transfer of mentality [laughs].
In the Western Balkans, you have this mentality of black and white. Either you are the winner or the loser. But in a democracy, the key element is compromise. Compromise has very often a negative connotation in the Western Balkans, but in reality it means that everybody has to give to the other a little bit in order to get something more.
But this does not only apply to politicians, this is a more general assessment. Politicians who are not capable of compromise are in a way the wrong model for many people, and that's why the strengthening, for instance, of parliament is one of the key areas where we invest a lot. As you can see in the majority of countries, Parliament is not working in a way we would like to see it.
Is it a Balkan style?
No. This is a broader phenomenon in countries in transition. The countries of the Eastern Neighbourhood, but also Tunisia, where democracy is really young and inexperienced, face all of these issues. So there are many shortcomings and deficiencies which have to be addressed.
The European Parliament has created the Jean Monnet Dialogue where MEPs are facilitating discussions between opposition and government in a retreat format. It should really lead to improvement of Parliamentarian procedures and standards.
Are the Balkans countries complaining about EU requests in view of democratic issues in Poland, in Hungary, in Romania?
Yes, of course, but this was more a problem three or four years ago. In the meantime, we succeeded in explaining that we had learned the lessons from past Enlargement Rounds, especially the big one in 2004, by changing our procedural methodology. We start negotiating with the opening of the Rule of Law chapters 23 and 24, and we are closing the negotiations with these chapters.
My aim is that a new Member State should be a fully-fledged member of the EU from day one, but of course this needs intensive preparation and implementation of reforms. It’s not only about adopting laws, but transforming the whole society.
Today we have still this verification mechanism with Romania and Bulgaria, they are not, like Croatia, members of the Schengen area. So I think if there is any new Member, it should be a member of Schengen from the very beginning, and it should not be under the control of such a verification mechanism.
Where are we in our relationship with Turkey? The European Parliament has asked, again, for the official freezing of the accession negotiation (see EUROPE 12213/3). Do you think that the EU Council will take such a decision?
No, I think the majority of Member States do not want to change the current status which means de facto that the negotiations are frozen. The pre-accession budget for Turkey has also been adjusted downwards to this situation.
But of course, Turkey is a key strategic partner with whom we share areas of common interest such as trade, energy, regional security, migration. The local elections on Sunday have demonstrated that a considerable part of the population wants a stable, open, democratic Turkey. Therefore, we are continuing to support civil society in particular.