The European Union is preparing to present the year 2025 as the year of a new wave of enlargement, but disputes in the Balkans could delay this process, according to the Draft Strategy for the Western Balkans, reported by EUobserver, reported by Tanjug.
"With strong political will, implementation of reforms and sustainable solutions to disputes with neighbors, Montenegro and Serbia should be ready for membership by 2025," the text of the Draft states.
In the European Commission for Tanjug, they say that the draft Strategy is still in the working "internal version", which is still being harmonized and can be changed until the moment of publication.
According to Tanjug's diplomatic sources in Brussels, the conversation between the European Commission and the member states is mainly related to the time limitation of the new wave of enlargement, but also the signing of the agreement on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, which according to earlier announcements the EC planned for 2025, i.e. 2019 year.
The Commission and the European Parliament confirmed for Tanjug that the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, should present the new strategy on February 6 and 7, first before the members of the EP in Strasbourg, and then in Brussels.
Diplomatic sources say that it is precisely because of the continuous work that the date of the presentation of the Strategy may be moved.
In the draft of that document, namely, which EUobserver had access to, February 14 is stated as the date of presentation.
"Partners in the Western Balkans have a historic opportunity. For the first time, the perspective of their accession has a time frame," the draft text transmitted by EUobserver further states.
In the working document of the European Commission, which Tanjug had access to, Montenegro and Serbia are marked as leaders in the EU accession process.
"The EU is committed to maintaining this momentum as well as opening several new chapters with Serbia in 2018. It is up to Serbia to determine the speed of negotiations, first and foremost making real and substantive progress in the area of the rule of law. Progress in the dialogue with Kosovo and work towards comprehensive normalization of relations, will be crucial for Serbia's progress in the process of EU accession," a European Commission official told Tanjug.
When it comes to the remaining countries of the region, in the working document the Commission states that it expects candidate status for BiH by the end of 2019 and "momentum in membership negotiations" for Albania and Macedonia, if Tirana implements five reform priorities and Skopje resolves the name problem with Greece . Kosovo should be in a position to consider a formal application for candidate status. What the European Commission should especially warn the region about through the new strategy, and what President Jean-Claude Juncker himself said, prompted by the current disputes between Croatia and Slovenia, is the resolution of bilateral disputes before joining the membership.
"The EU will not import bilateral disputes, that's why all partners on the Western Bakan must resolve them as soon as possible," the draft document states, along with the proposal that border issues be resolved by international arbitration, for example in The Hague, where any decision would have to be binding. and final and fully complied with.
The document should emphasize that the "comprehensive normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo in the form of a legally binding document" will be crucial for the EU perspective of both sides, and at the same time they warn in Brussels that regardless of the eventual agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, Kosovo's aspirations for membership in the EU has a major obstacle in the form of five EU member states that do not recognize independence.
In an interview with Tanjug, European analysts warn that the Strategy for the Western Balkans could be a "double-edged sword", on the one hand, as much as the time frame would give impetus and new energy to the countries of the Western Balkans to embark on even stronger and faster reform processes, so much unrealistic and too short deadlines, which could not be accompanied by adequate reform processes in the region, could be counterproductive, and the result discouraging.
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