Expert: EU Expansion Process Captive

Aleksandra Tomanic

The citizens of the Western Balkans, but many EU citizens as well, expect the EU's institutions and members to stop their hypocrisy and act in accordance with their proclaimed values and geopolitical goals, where the EU's expansions is concerned, European Fund for the Balkans executive director Aleksandra Tomanic has said.

In an article titled, Expansion 2021: Captive States, Captive Commission, Tomanic wrote that in addition to captive states wanting to join the EU and the EU's captive institutions, the enlargement process was also captive.

Tomanic recalled that, back in 2018, the European Commission had stated that all around the Western Balkans "countries have been showing clear elements of captive states" adding that after this important assessment, which had arrived very late, nothing had happened. She stressed that the European Commission had not  provided precise data on the roots and effects of "holding states captive," nor offered a concrete plan for solving the problem and establishing a higher degree of democracy, nor had the rulers of captive states suffered any consequences.

"To the contrary, powermongers throughout the region are still being praised, enjoy support and host meetings; relations with them have continued as always," the executive director of the Balkan Fund for the Balkans said in the article for EURACTIV.