Even if the war in Ukraine currently requires all of Europe's attention, the EU must not lose sight of the Western Balkans, warns Gerald Knaus, an Austrian sociologist and migration researcher.
Moscow has an "interest in stirring up tensions in Europe's backyard, in the Balkans," Knaus says in an interview with the Austrian news agency APA, and talks about "dramatic problems" in the region, and points out that the atmosphere is already dangerous.
"A war in the Balkans has become conceivable again"
Admittedly, the rearmament of some countries of the Western Balkans, the increasingly fierce rhetoric of hostility and the questioning of borders or institutions, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina - do not mean that there will actually be an open conflict, says Knaus, but:
"This means that people are afraid. And if there are provocations from the outside, then such a situation can get out of control. And that can happen quickly," explains Knaus.
"A war in the Western Balkans has become "imaginable" again, because after the EU's decision to supply weapons to Kiev and the introduction of economic sanctions against Russia, President Vladimir Putin is now looking for opportunities "to strike back - and he would have the opportunity to do so in the Balkans," he said. Knaus.
The EU must quickly offer a concrete perspective
The founder of the Berlin think tank "European Stability Initiative" (ESI) sees this danger "unless the EU finally becomes proactive and gives up the lazy politics dominated by the constant repetition of the same phrases, which no one alive believes anymore".
"That absurd and dangerous inertness of the EU, which simply hopes that nothing will happen, without actively undertaking something, is irresponsible," criticizes the Austrian.
In Ukraine, the reaction was too late. The European Union must now quickly offer a clear and concrete perspective to the Western Balkans.
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