EU Spain and Kosovo, at the same European table for the first time in history
Serbia The 'war of license plates' tense the Balkans
In May 2018, at the last face-to-face summit between the EU Heads of State and Government and the Balkan neighbors (Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo), the message was very clear:
hand stretched out but door closed.
Good words, good wishes, promises of economic cooperation and good proximity, but no hope for a further enlargement in the short term. The message now, three and a half years later, is even clearer: the door has seven padlocks.
The situation is not deceptive. The 2004-2007 enlargement was a milestone in many respects, but there is an important group of veteran members who believe that it was a mistake, that if they could go back in time they would probably go backwards and that they have learned so much that they do not want to go back. hear of accessions. The problems with Hungary and Poland are the clearest example, but not the only one. Corruption, migratory crisis, unsurpassed tensions, populism, deaths of journalists, etc. That is why in a very short time the climate has completely changed. In 2003 there was a promise. In 2018 the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker,
envisioned the union of Serbia and Montenegro
as early as 2025 if necessary reforms were made and border disputes were resolved. His words, a mixture of desire and lobby, could not have been further from reality.
The first in line, right now, are Albania and North Macedonia, who have done almost everything that has been asked of them to at least be able to sit at the table to negotiate, but there is no appetite beyond Brussels and some countries. neighbors. Bulgaria continues to veto the start of initial talks over
disputes with Skopje
over historical claims, minorities and language discrepancies. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez assured Albanian Edi Rama this week that "Europe is its space" and that "Spain is actively in favor of enlargement", and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that week in spread that "the future of Albania is in the EU", but the majority sentiment is not there.
It is not (just) a question of money, of politics, of elections like the ones that have just been held in Germany and are held in France in the spring. Something has awakened in the last five years on a cultural,
identity level.
The feeling that perpetual growth is not the answer, that there are deep, deep-seated issues that make what had been a driving force for decades inadvisable. There was an unwritten rule that made Brussels the beacon on the hill, illuminating to guide the most disoriented neighbors, but also showing the way home. It's not like that.
Now we do not talk about love, but at most about marriages of convenience. There are not many who believe that the neighbors can fit in well in the Union, but they fear that if the refusal is too clear they will end up hearing other siren songs.
"If the EU is not in the region, there is no doubt that others will rush to fill the void,"
the Greek Mitsotakis warned on Tuesday, thinking of Russia, Turkey and China. The rivals of the EU have been doing their homework for years, increasing their presence, their investment, their propaganda. It is working, as seen during the early stages of the pandemic and now, in delicate moments. The community narrative is only as loose as its promises.
The Slovenian presidency (the country has the rotating direction of the Council that semester) that organized the Summit tried to force a document of conclusions that would set around 2030 the date on which the most advanced countries, provided they have done their homework, can aspire to adherence.
The rejection was very clear and the anger was deep.
"The EU reconfirms its commitments to the enlargement process and decisions taken on the basis of credible reforms by its partners, stringent conditions and the principle of own merits," says the joint document in a paragraph added at the last minute to soften a position. clearly cold.
But it is not only the rudeness, when not open contempt in the preparations for the meeting on Wednesday, in which there will also be representatives of the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank, but the 27 meet to have dinner this Tuesday, in the run-up to the summit, but
to talk about China, about Europe's position in the world,
about Australian submarines.
Of what matters to the leaders, but not to the Balkans.
And that has been very bad.
The issues that the area would like to discuss are close economic relations, travel visas, not the crisis in the Indian Ocean.
The 27 now have an important decision for the next decade, to find the
balance between hopes and disappointments,
between more or less empty promises and slaps of realism. European credibility is not at its best, but it remains the aspiration and natural destiny for the Western Balkans. Approaching generates many misgivings, but not doing so has consequences. Many in the area blame this impasse on the
tensions in Bosnia
or the umpteenth crisis between Serbia and Kosovo, which has recently forced NATO to multiply its patrols. The EU is afraid of being wrong again, but it also knows that there is only worse mistake than ignoring a problem: ignoring it in the powder keg of the Balkans. Everything that is heated there always explodes throughout the continent.
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