Nice promises, but still no concrete progress. At the end of the meeting of European and Western Balkan leaders in Brussels on Thursday 23 June, disappointment prevailed on the Balkan side.
The meeting, which lasted almost four hours, did not produce any concrete results, but according to an EU source, it did allow for the discussion of the challenges of the current geostrategic situation and ways to further strengthen relations between the EU and the Western Balkan countries.
“The meeting was an opportunity to reassure these countries from a European perspective, to show that there was a European family and, politically, to show that the process was not only going to continue, but that the Europeans were going to try to make it more dynamic, to make the reforms more dynamic, to make the negotiations more dynamic”, added another European diplomat. The meeting was also an opportunity for French President Emmanuel Macron to present his idea of a European Political Community (see EUROPE 12972/9). This discussion continued at the EU27 European Council dinner on Thursday.
“There will be no great and strong Europe without the Western Balkans”, warned the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
Thus, while the EU27 stressed, in their conclusions, the “full and unequivocal” commitment to the EU membership perspective of the Western Balkans and called for the acceleration of the accession process, Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and to a lesser extent Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, did not hide their dissatisfaction in front of the press.
“The day was marked by the disappointment that many countries in the Western Balkans expressed with regard to European expectations”, acknowledged the head of the Portuguese government, António Costa.
The European leaders - the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission and the French President - cancelled their media appearances after the meeting. Officially, due to lack of time. “They were very clever to cancel it. This shows that they feel really bad about what is happening”, said Mr Rama.
“There were no concrete results, but there was a good discussion. This should never be underestimated “, stressed Mr. Vučić, while recalling that North Macedonia and Albania did not get the opening of EU accession negotiations, “Pristina” did not get visa liberalisation and Bosnia and Herzegovina was not granted the status of a candidate country for accession.
While Sarajevo was not granted this status, the European Council warned in its conclusions that it was ready to grant it in the near future. It called on the Commission to report back to the EU Council “without delay” on the implementation of the 14 key priorities set out in its opinion, “with special attention to those which constitute a substantial set of reforms in order for the European Council to revert to decide on the matter”.
The Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, emphasised the urgent implementation of the electoral and constitutional reform. The Commission’s enlargement package is expected by mid-October. If the conditions are met, EU leaders could validate Bosnia and Herzegovina’s candidate country status in December, according to an EU source.
A culprit: Bulgaria
“This is a historic day, but in the wrong way”, added Mr Rama. He said he felt “great sadness”, pain and “ frustration” for the EU, “unable to free two hostages from Bulgaria”. “Bulgaria is a disgrace, a NATO country that kidnaps two others”, he said, denouncing Sofia’s attitude towards Skopje and, by ricochet effect, Tirana. Tirana has been waiting for eight years to open negotiations and Skopje for 17 years.
According to the Albanian Prime Minister, all Member States have underlined their support for the opening of accession negotiations. In their conclusions, EU leaders called for a “swift resolution of the last remaining issues so that accession negotiations can be opened without delay”.
The Bulgarian Parliament is due to vote on Friday on whether to support a compromise proposal by the French Presidency of the EU Council to resolve the conflict between North Macedonia and Bulgaria. “If tomorrow the deputies take the decision to go ahead, the government will be able to endorse it relatively quickly”, said the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov.
“We hope that this can contribute to freeing up the solution”, stressed the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. Mr Macron added that “if it goes well”, EU Member States’ ambassadors would meet next week to agree to the opening of accession negotiations.
However, the Macedonian Prime minister opposed the compromise negotiated by France. “The proposal, in this form, is currently unacceptable”, he warned. He added that “nobody can impose a solution without our consent. We have done everything, now the EU must move”.
“All EU27 countries, all 27 leaders who have joined the Union, have all proudly joined with all their diversity and with full respect for their own and others' linguistic and historical differences. None of this was problematic on their European path. This is what we want, nothing more, nothing less”, Mr Kovačevski stressed.
Many Member States have taken the Serbian President to task for his proximity to Russia. Serbia, which condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine, did not align itself with the EU sanctions, unlike its neighbours. “The experience was less pleasant for me” than for the Macedonian and Albanian leaders, Mr Vučić admitted.
See the European Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/2aa (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant, with Mathieu Bion, Lionel Changeur and Thomas Mangin)