Bad day for the Western Balkans

At the summit in Brussels, the European Union discussed the progress of the countries of the Western Balkans. The meeting ended without any concrete results. And while the Balkans are disappointed, Ukraine and Moldova have received candidate status.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. That is the summary of the EU-Western Balkans summit, which was held in Brussels on Thursday (June 23.6). No start of negotiations with North Macedonia. There is no start of negotiations with Albania. There is no liberalization of the visa regime for Kosovo. Nothing from candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is no progress in the negotiations between Montenegro and the Union. There is no progress in the case of Serbia regarding the introduction of sanctions against Russia either.

"I didn't expect anything from this summit anyway," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who, together with the Prime Ministers of Albania, Edi Rama, and North Macedonia, Dimitra Kovačevski, practically threatened to boycott the summit on the eve of the meeting in Brussels - due to dissatisfaction with the policy of expansion to the countries of the region.

"I feel sorry for the European Union"

"I feel sorry for the European Union. They are in a much worse condition than we are. I hope we can help them," Albanian Prime Minister Rama said sarcastically at the press conference after the meeting. And on Twitter, he continued in the same style: "A beautiful place, beautiful people, beautiful words, beautiful pictures, just imagine how all that would be even more beautiful if after beautiful promises followed their fulfillment."

Instead of concrete moves that would finally "push" the Western Balkan region towards the European Union and concrete progress, the summit ended with frustration and cynical remarks by Balkan leaders who did not even bother to hide their disappointment with the "impotent Union", as Rama called it.

For almost four hours, EU heads of state and government discussed with their colleagues from Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro. Four hours later, at a press conference, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron (whose country is currently at the head of the EU), were supposed to answer journalists' questions about the Union's policy towards the Balkans and the summit without concrete results. But the press conference was suddenly cancelled. Apparently due to lack of time.

"Open Discussion"

Unofficial sources could hear that an "open discussion" was held. Among the countries that insisted on respecting all the criteria for the countries of the region, for example regarding the granting of candidate status to BiH, was Germany. The reason, Berlin claims, is that there is still no progress in BiH regarding the 14 reform criteria defined earlier.

Despite this, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supported the countries of the region in EU integration: "Germany will support the activities of the Western Balkan countries on their way to the European Union," he said on Thursday in Brussels.

"We feel responsible for those countries succeeding in their endeavours. The countries of the region must finally get the feeling that their reform efforts are being rewarded."

Instead of progress, there was a lot of mutual recrimination at the summit. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama harshly criticized Bulgaria, a country that found itself in an internal political crisis after a vote of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Wednesday evening.

Bulgarian "shame"

"It is a shame that one NATO member took two other NATO members hostage," said Rama. Sofia blocks Skopje due to issues related to national identity and the rights of the Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia. The remaining 26 members of the European Union demonstrate tremendous impotence," criticized Rama.

He reminded that North Macedonia has been waiting for the start of accession negotiations for almost 17 years.

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, however, criticized Serbia for not wanting to recognize her former province. In the process of accession negotiations with the European Union, only those countries that support EU sanctions against Russia need to progress, said Osmani-Sadriu, apparently alluding to Belgrade.

Serbia has not yet joined the EU sanctions against Moscow, even though Chancellor Soltz has repeatedly emphasized that the candidate countries are expected to coordinate their foreign policy with the Union.

The Western Balkans is not making progress in terms of integration, and the policy of the European Union is mainly to blame for that, says DW Gerald Knaus, director of the Berlin think tank ESI and the creator of the refugee "deal" with Turkey in 2016. He often stays in the Balkan region and believes that the "magnet" possible membership is slowly losing its luster in the six countries of the region:

"Every reasonable person who believes in the European future of the region despairs because of this way of acting of the European Union. That state of despair results in apathy, and the next stage is then cynicism. And in the end, people just give up."

Knaus particularly criticized the policy of the current German government, accusing it of being too passive: "Germany today is not an engine of European integration. That may change in these two days at the summits in Brussels. But at the moment, Germany is not an engine for anything in the Balkans. It is enough to see what is happening regarding the blockade of North Macedonia by Bulgaria. Nothing happens. Germany is extremely passive. Germany is without any ideas at the moment."