The EU and the Balkan ‘rift’
The heads of state of the European Union and the Western Balkans are scheduled to meet on December 6 in Tirana to discuss the region’s future, at a time when the dramatic developments in Ukraine are threatening to reactivate the Balkan “rift,” among the many other repercussions of the war.
The European leaders will find themselves, for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the vulnerable Balkan “field” and will have to try to find a way to strike a delicate balance between the EU’s expansion and growing pro-European sentiment among the people of those countries.
Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine and its increasingly aggressive totalitarian revisionism have shown the people of the Balkans, and some of their leaders, exactly what the Russians have to offer. They are also growing more aware of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s true intentions, as he seeks to establish himself as a powerful player in their backyard, but also of what the EU could bring to the table.
The absence of major players like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or French President Emmanuel Macron – or even both – would send the wrong message entirely
The momentum is favorable right now and the EU’s political leadership should take advantage of it in order to reassert its strong intention to accelerate the accession process for the candidate countries.
“This is the moment of truth for the Western Balkans,” European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said last week, tacitly urging EU leaders to attend the summit in Albania in force, and thus send a powerful message to the people of the Balkans that Europe is at their side in these tumultuous times.
Schinas is right. The absence of major players like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or French President Emmanuel Macron – or even both – would send the wrong message entirely.
There’s a lot at stake, geopolitically, in Europe’s Balkan backyard and there’s no more room for betrayal and prevarication: Two fires are already simmering, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo, that threaten to light things up. The people of the Western Balkans need to feel that the European umbrella is being expanded to protect them too, both at the highest level by an acceleration of procedures, but also at the practical level with some assistance on the energy front to help them through the winter.
In this area, the Europeans need to act as they do at home, given the Balkans’ almost complete dependence on Russian gas. The mistake of the scandalous delays in the delivery of Covid vaccines – allowing the Turks, the Russians and the Chinese to step in and act like good Samaritans, at great geopolitical cost – cannot be repeated here.
