Belgrade Security Conference: EU Candidates Yet to Overcome Problems on Their Path to EU

Emanuele Giaufret (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

The participants of a closing panel of the Belgrade Security Conference agreed on Oct. 13 that even though the momentum for EU enlargement existed, the candidate countries had yet to overcome the problems hindering their progress on the path of integration.

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Emanuele Giaufret said at the panel on EU enlargement 20 years after the Thessaloniki Summit that since the conference in Greece, the matter of enlargement had never held so much importance.

“There is a truly wonderful opportunity for the Western Balkans. We need to renew the support of the enlargement process that existed before in the region, which disappeared because of lengthy negotiations,” he said.

A vice-president of the European Movement in Serbia, Vladimir Medjak, said that Serbia had not done very much on its part to accelerate the accession process. “When it comes to enlargement, unfortunately, no incentive for something like this would have existed had the war in Ukraine not happened,” Medjak said, adding that Serbia’s political elites informed the public about the integration processes through the media that they controlled.