In Kosovo, which has been waiting for visa liberalization since 2010, the owner of a restaurant has installed a large copy of the famous French Eiffel Tower.
"We made it as a kind of consolation for people who can't go to Paris," said Blerim Bislimi, owner of the restaurant "Te Anija" (On the ship) in the village of Janjevo near Pristina.
The Reuters agency writes that this joke is a reflection of dissatisfaction throughout the Balkans regarding the prospect of six countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia - ever joining the European Union.
The lack of progress on key steps such as visa-free travel has led to such disappointment that the leaders of Albania and Serbia even considered the possibility of not attending today's Balkan-EU summit in Brussels.
The leaders of Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia, Aleksandar Vučić, Edi Rama and Dimitar Kovačevski decided to go to Brussels, but Rama expressed apathy on Twitter: "We will attend the EU Council meeting. Not much will be heard about us, but we will ask to listen to us in relation to the idea of the New European political community that we support, in relation to the Open Balkans which improves the spirit of Europe and to the fact that we are hostages to Bulgaria which is destroying it," wrote Rama.
Kovačevski announced that together with Ram and Vučić, he would tell the EU leaders that if progress in the European integration process of the region is not ensured, it will be a serious problem and a blow to the EU's credibility in the Balkans, Beta reported.
"If the progress of the European integration process is not ensured, it will be a serious problem and a blow to the credibility of the EU in the Balkans. We will convey our views on this topic together at the EU summit for the Western Balkans, on a broad forum, in the center of European diplomacy," he wrote. Kovačevski on his Facebook page.
In June, Serbia will not get the green light from Brussels to open a new cluster in negotiations with the EU since, as officials in Belgrade stated, it did not impose sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, writes Radio Free Europe.
In Serbia, enthusiasm for EU membership has declined so much that 44 percent of citizens now oppose it, while 35 percent support it, while the rest are undecided, according to an Ipsos survey in April.
EU and regional leaders in Brussels will, among other things, discuss the enlargement process and the European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans, coordination with the EU's common foreign and security policy, as well as the resulting geostrategic challenges of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Beta announced. A French proposal for the establishment of a European political community could also be on the table.
Ukraine's accelerated progress on its path to the EU has only increased the feeling of the countries of the region that they have been left out, even if all but BiH and Kosovo are already candidates for membership in the bloc.
A draft communiqué from the summit seen by Reuters said EU leaders would reiterate their "full and unequivocal commitment to the perspective of the Western Balkans' membership in the EU."
It is expected that at the summit on June 23 and 24, the European Commission's recommendation that Ukraine and Moldova receive the status of candidates for EU membership will be adopted.
Reuters states that Ukraine's accelerated progress on the road to the EU has only increased the feeling of the countries of the region that they have been left aside, even if all but BiH and Kosovo are already candidates for membership in the bloc. After the EC recommended that Ukraine be granted candidate status, many wondered why Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also went through a bloody war in the 1990s, should not be rewarded in the same way. Slovenia announced that at the summit it will propose that BiH be granted candidate status.
North Macedonia applied for EU membership in 2004, and is still waiting to start accession negotiations after constant obstacles from neighboring EU members. First, Greece asked Macedonia to change its name, which it did in 2018, hoping to unblock the path to the EU. However, Bulgaria vetoed the talks in 2020 amid disputes over history and language. France announced that it is making efforts to overcome this problem, and the situation is further complicated by the new political crisis in Bulgaria. Kiril Petkov's government fell yesterday when it was voted no-confidence in the parliament due to fiscal and economic policies, potentially paving the way for new elections.
The Albanian process of European integration is stalled mainly because it is related to the process of North Macedonia. Prime Minister Rama said he would seek to separate them if there was no progress at this week's summit. However, during a recent visit to Kiev with the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, Rama said that both of them fully support Ukraine's request to obtain the status of a candidate for EU membership.
"No one should speculate on the fact that, since Europe did not fulfill the promise it made to us, it now bothers us that it is taking that step in favor of Ukraine," said Rama.
EU diplomats do not expect progress at the summit, which is being held today and tomorrow, writes Reuters.
Granting candidate status to Ukraine without any feasible progress for the Balkans is also a "bad message" for the region, Zvezdana Kovač from the European Movement in Serbia told Reuters.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel have visited the region and all reiterated support but failed to take any concrete steps.
Reuters reports that no progress has been made in overcoming Bulgaria's veto, nor has there been a broader push to help Serbia and Montenegro in their negotiations, which require politically unpopular reforms.
Too many conditions?
Arton Demhasaj from the Pristina anti-corruption organization "Čohu" (Wake Up) says that the EU does not have any clear enlargement policy for the Western Balkans.
"If countries that want to join the EU are faced with delays, they will reorient their policies and we will have increased Russian and Chinese influence in the Western Balkans," he told Reuters.
Balkan officials say that in contrast to the EU's eastward expansion, which has transformed ex-communist states like Poland into advanced market democracies, the EU's current approach offers too little reward attached to too many conditions.
Reuters reports that some EU governments, particularly in France, the Netherlands and Denmark, fear a negative political backlash in member states due to migration from the Balkans and are seeking to increase reforms.
"Too many governments think we can keep making new demands on the Balkans and say, 'Come back when you're done,'" said one senior EU diplomat involved in the talks. "But it doesn't work like that, they're going to give up at some point."
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