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EU Seeks To Assure Balkans At Summit

RFE/RL July 12, 2017

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni opened an EU-Western Balkans summit on July 12 in the the northern port city of Trieste -- the fourth such meeting since 2014.

During the summit, the European Commission is expected to announce new funding for the region's economic growth, while Balkan leaders are expected to sign a treaty on integrating their transport networks, and adopt a plan to create a regional economic area.

The six non-EU Western Balkans countries -- Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Albania -- have been frustrated by the slow pace of EU accession.

The 28-member bloc is keen to show it is still committed to expansion in the Balkans even though the official enlargement process is on hold until 2019, and the bloc itself is confronted with its own challenges -- Britain's leaving the EU and migration leading the list.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU had a duty to move the region "slowly but surely" toward membership, more than 25 years after Yugoslavia unraveled in conflict.

"Political stability in the region means political stability for us, too," Merkel said during a forum of civil society organizations organized on the sidelines of the summit. "We know this from experience."

The EU's interest has been further fueled by reports of growing influence by Russia in the Balkans, a region Moscow regards as a traditional area of interest.

Russian efforts have been mostly visible in Serbia, which remains Moscow's last remaining ally after another historic partner, Montenegro, made a decisive move toward the West by joining NATO this year.

There have also been increasing tensions in Macedonia and an attempted coup in Montenegro during October elections, allegedly orchestrated by Russia with an attempt to avert Montenegro's NATO bid.

Tensions have been simmering in the region, which went through bloody ethnic wars through the 1990s.

There has been stepped up nationalist rhetoric between Serbia and Croatia, as well as Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. The move hasn't been recognized by Belgrade.

Even EU member states Croatia and Slovenia have been involved in a territorial dispute stemming from the 1990s breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Croatia doesn't recognize an international arbitration ruling last month on the border dispute with Slovenia.

With additional reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dp

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-seeks-reassure -balkans-summit/28612761.html

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EU Seeks To Assure Balkans At Summit