European Foreign Ministers agreed on Monday 10 May that the partnership between the EU and the Western Balkan countries should be more political and strategic.
“We need to engage more with the countries of the Western Balkans”, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Policy and Security Affairs Josep Borrell told the media after the Foreign Affairs Council’s first discussion on the subject in 2 years.
He said the ministers agreed that the region plays a “key geostrategic role” for the EU. “Our commitment must be very visible, and there must be no doubt about it”, explained the High Representative.
The EU therefore wants political engagement with the countries of the region, whether on Covid-19 and vaccines, economic cooperation, connectivity, countering foreign influences, or reducing disinformation, Mr Borrell expanded. “We also agreed to look for ways to strengthen our already intense security and defence cooperation”, he added.
The High Representative also stressed the need for countries in the region to accelerate their EU-related reforms.
While the Member States have agreed on the main principles of the relationship, they now need to make more concrete proposals to move forward on the Western Balkans, according to Mr Borrell. He hoped that the subject would be back on the EU Council’s agenda by the summer break.
“There may be something more to do in terms of concrete initiative and quality of interaction”, said one EU source, adding that although the EU has a very strong investment in the region, some third countries achieve more by doing less.
In the meantime, Mr Borrell will receive the leaders of the Western Balkans at a dinner in Brussels next week to discuss the political situation in the region as a whole.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar, whose country will take over the EU Council Presidency on 1 July, also announced that his country would host an informal Western Balkans summit in early October 2021.
No intention to decouple the processes for Skopje and Tirana
On the eve of a discussion point on enlargement at the General Affairs Council, the High Representative said that the ministers had recalled the European perspective of the whole region.
In front of the media, several ministers gave their support to opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. In this regard, and contrary to what had been suggested by Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi, Mr Borrell clarified that there had never been any intention to decouple the two countries (see EUROPE 12715/13). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)