OPINION

Leader in the Balkans, a protagonist in finding solutions

Leader in the Balkans, a protagonist in finding solutions

The EU-Western Balkans summit, held this week in Tirana, sent a positive message to the countries in the region that are largely making progress, as requested by the European Union, but the prospects for their accession remain murky.

There is an excessive delay in the roadmap, if one considers that the starting point to highlight the vision and lay the foundations for the process of rapprochement between the Western Balkans and the EU was made at a summit in Thessaloniki in 2003.

As a result of the war in Ukraine, Brussels now attaches increased geopolitical importance to tightening ties with the Western Balkans. It is no coincidence that this was the first time a summit was held in a candidate country.

In that context, Athens is playing a leading role, actively supporting the integration of all the countries of the region into the Union, while at the same time becoming increasingly a part of finding solutions rather than being a part of problems, as was often the case in the past.

I remember in the 1990s American heavyweight diplomat Richard Holbrooke complaining that Greece often asked him to intervene to deal with the problems it had with almost all its neighbors – from Albania and the then Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Bulgaria and Turkey.

Today’s realities are very different. Greece’s recent delimitation agreements for the exclusive economic zones with Italy and with Egypt – based on the law of the sea and made in a spirit of good-neighborly relations, which allows all sides to show the flexibility required to reach mutually beneficial solutions – are indicative not only of intentions but also of actions.

Furthermore, after the Prespes Agreement, relations with North Macedonia are on a positive trajectory. The same is true with Bulgaria, especially as energy synergies through the construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria Pipeline (IBG) bring the two countries even closer.

With Albania, there are prospects for moving forward with the delimitation of maritime zones, which will of course be judged on its merits when it takes its final form.

An agreement in principle to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice was discussed at length both between the prime ministers of Greece and Albania on the sidelines of Tuesday’s summit in Tirana, and during the visit of Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka to Athens last week.

With the Balkans being a region where the usual political instability offers fertile ground for external influences of all kinds and different sides, Greece is showing by its actions that it is promoting the normalization of relations and finding legally sound solutions. The above is possible when the sides involved accept international law as a compass and cooperate in a spirit of good-neighborliness, instead of issuing threats and demonstrating destabilizing behavior. 

Subscribe to our Newsletters

Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.