Diplomats: EU No Longer Ready to Guarantee Membership to Balkan Countries

European Union (Shutterstock)

Fearing political reaction in its member states, the European Union can no longer reach a consensus on giving guarantees to six Balkan countries on their future membership as promised, Voice of America quoted a report by Reuters in the evening on Sept. 28. The report cited four unnamed diplomats and an internal document.

No agreement on a declaration for a summit of the EU and Balkan leaders due on Oct. 6 is “a low point” in the EU strategy of accepting Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia as members.

This, according to Reuters, also coincides with the growing tensions at the border between Serbia and Kosovo. At the summit, the EU has planned to repeat its promise given 18 years ago that it will offer “unambiguous support to the Western Balkans’ European perspective,” says a draft declaration prepared on Sept. 11 that Reuters had an opportunity to look into. The diplomats were quoted as saying that two rounds of discussions on the draft held so far had yielded no agreement on the paper.

The EU also indirectly adds to the tensions in the region inhabited by 20 million people who wished to join the Union after the wars of the 1990s.

“They have to behave badly in order to be noticed. The situation in the Balkans is deteriorating because the European capitals have lost interest [in them],” the unnamed high EU diplomat in charge of the Balkan policy said, according to the report.