Strasbourg, 14/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Elmar Brok's report on EU enlargement strategy, which proposes to a new wave of candidates not the prospect of EU membership but rather entry into a European economic area without political integration, could, if it were to become Union policy, be a “political disaster for the Balkan countries”, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, joint president of the Greens/EFA Group, told the press on Tuesday. He warned that, in this still unstable region, where tricky negotiations are taking place on the status of Kosovo, the death of Milosevic does not make things any easier and could cause a “rash of nationalism”. “We must not say to these countries: come back in the third, or even fourth, millennium!”, the German Green member exclaimed.
The same day during another press conference, Belgian Liberal Annemie Neyts-Utterbroeck expressed similar concern. If there is a change of heart within the EU towards the Balkans, this could have a more serious impact on the stability of the region than the sudden death of Slobodan Milosevic, she said. She went on to acknowledge that the accession process for these countries could “stretch over the next ten years” but considers it already possible to set the “path” to be followed.
Answering questions on this subject, the president of the EPP-ED Group, Hans-Gert Pöttering supported the ideas put forward by CDU member Elmar Brok in his report (to be discussed on Wednesday afternoon), saying that it is necessary to find a “compromise between neighbourhood and accession” and that the Union must now focus on its own consolidation. What the Brok report offers the Balkans is “a political prospect of stage-by-stage rapprochement with the EU”, Mr Pöttering said.