Few times have I laughed so sincerely, as after opening yesterday's news about the "Summit of leaders of the Western Balkans and the European Union" in Kotor. A rarely senseless gathering, with an even more senseless photo of smiling leaders feigning optimism, and looking like a group of neighborhood mongooses, with a surreal, amusing common slogan "One region, common vision" immediately reminded me of the klapa song "Dvoje se milovalo drago", i.e. part of the text author Slavko Govorčin from that poem: "He brings oranges to her from navigation." Because Stoši oranges are the favorite, pears and apples from Kotor. Ivan Stoši carries his hands full".
Exactly, the messages, photos and rhetoric in Kotor looked like mixing pears and apples. Because as much as the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama tried to be humorous and exchanged jokes with the Montenegrin Prime Minister Spajić about the lack of sun and good weather on the Adriatic, if we exclude the specific financial aid of six billion dollars for "accelerating reforms and economic growth", we witnessed a meeting of people who they share everything in the world rather than a common vision of the region.
Moreover, people and leaders, even in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself, do not have a common vision of their own country, let alone the region. All of which came to the fore on the issue of bilateral relations, whether it was Kosovo, the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica or the European perspective of the region in general.
That things are nowhere near idyllic, as they tried to present us from the photos and the first reports, is best seen from the statement of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, James O'Brien, who said that the priority of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans is to create a single money circulation market, lower costs, easier movement on the market and more jobs, i.e. specifically noted: "The beauty of the Plan is that the message is clear for each participant - do your job and don't ask someone else to do something first for you to do own".
And no matter how much the US assistant secretary of state or one of the international officials continues to talk about the economy and similar topics, the fact is that economic cooperation has never been a problem here, and that different political visions are a problem. Which no amount of diplomatic and even serious financial investments have moved from the deadlock since the end of the war until today.
More specifically, the basic prerequisite for all other issues is that no one questions the state and state borders created by the breakup of Yugoslavia, and that all countries in the region express a sincere desire to join the European Union.
That desire does not really exist among the majority of Serbian citizens, nor does it really exist in Vučić's policy. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it is still somehow held, in Montenegro and Albania it is unquestionable, and with the new Macedonian government, which will logically enter into the expected conflict with Bulgaria, the question arises of the relationship of Macedonians or North Macedonians towards the European Union.
To the question of whether the European Union alone can change these trends, regardless of the political leaders and the political mood of the societies in the region, the answer is that to some extent and in some places it can with its own moves, and in some places it realistically cannot, no matter how hard it tries.
However, since we already have a senseless experience of leaders in these areas who travel to fashionable places and negotiate while leading the SFRY into disintegration and war, along with the complete passivity of the newly united Europe, it would be extremely stupid not to use that experience in order to avoid his repetition.
And this is precisely where the responsibility of the European Union is crucial. Yes, regardless of the outcome of the upcoming elections for the European Parliament and the expected success of the right in them, simply push the countries and societies of the Western Balkans that really want it into the EU as soon as possible and thus offer an example to others that it is possible.
Otherwise, this summit could be one of the last where anyone will believe that a European future is possible and that long-term peace is certain.
Bonus video:
