EU and Western Balkan leaders will meet on the morning of Thursday 23 June for a summit to reiterate the region’s importance to the EU as their accession process stalls.
“We must reinvigorate the enlargement process and advance the integration of our Western Balkan partners”, said Charles Michel in his letter of invitation to the EU heads of state and government.
Therefore, according to a European diplomat, the meeting will be an opportunity for exchange and dialogue between the leaders. “No concrete results are expected”, he explained. An EU source warned that it would be a “very frank discussion, which is likely to be stormy”. While the Serbian, Macedonian and Albanian leaders at one point threatened to boycott the meeting to protest against their countries’ lack of progress in the accession process, they have now finally confirmed their participation.
With the accession process progressing slowly, or not at all, for the Western Balkan countries, EU leaders are expected to reiterate the EU’s “full and unequivocal” commitment “to the membership perspective of the Western Balkans” and to call for the accession process to be accelerated, according to draft conclusions.
They are also expected to ask the European Commission, the High Representative and the EU Council to advance progressive integration between the EU and the region already part of the enlargement process itself, in a reversible manner and on the basis of merit.
The success of the meeting will also depend on whether or not progress can be made on the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia, and by extension, Albania. On Wednesday, at the time of writing, the Bulgarian government had just been overthrown by a motion of censure, with 123 votes against 116, plunging the country into a new political crisis and further complicating the possibility of an agreement being reached on the opening of negotiations on Thursday.
In a letter to the President of the European Council, several leaders of the S&D group in the European Parliament reiterated that the Western Balkans “deserve a credible enlargement perspective and a predictable accession process”, arguing that the stalemate present in the accession processes of North Macedonia and Albania “sends the wrong signals to these two countries” (https://aeur.eu/f/293 ).
When asked about the possibility of decoupling these countries and opening accession negotiations with Tirana alone, several sources explained that a number of Member States were not keen on this. One explained that this would be misunderstood at regional level and seen as an “abandonment” of North Macedonia.
According to European sources, the European Council may discuss Bosnia and Herzegovina’s status as a candidate for EU membership. One EU diplomat explained that while some Member States have asked for the status to be granted, others think it is still too early, since progress on the 14 priorities identified by the European Commission has been “very poor”. However, he said that the EU wanted to be positive towards the country and to show the public – which is facing strong disinformation from Russia – that a European perspective is possible, but linked to the country’s progress.
According to the draft conclusions, the European Council should call on all political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to swiftly implement the commitments set out in the agreement and to finalise constitutional and electoral reform, “which will allow the country to move decisively forward on the road towards Europe, in line with the priorities set by the Commission. And in line with the priorities set out in the Commission’s opinion in order to achieve EU candidate status”.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/28j (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editors)