Slovenian FM: EU’s Inactivity in Western Balkans Is Strategically Dangerous

Anze Logar

The EU had to “as soon as possible” face the issues of enlargement and the Western Balkans and instead of waiting, engaged in a strategy to resolve problems, Slovenian Foreign Minister Anze Logar said on June 22.

“Over the last few years, the EU strategy for the Western Balkans has been ‘wait and see,’ while the EU has not been too active in the region in relation to delays in reforms,” Logar said, admitting that enlargement had been removed from the EU agenda in the past decade. 

“Third parties have entered the region, some have started to realize their strategic interests which shows the region’s vulnerability for the EU, which is strategically dangerous,” Logar said in an interview with EURACTIV, focusing on priorities of Slovenia’s presidency of the EU, starting July 1. 

Logar’s comments probably refer to Chinese and Russian “diplomacy of masks and vaccines” during the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused concern in the EU. “Unless the EU fills the vacuum in the Western Balkans, in our immediate neighborhood, someone else will. In that context, our best strategic interest is to act as soon as possible and integrated those countries in the EU,” the Slovenian foreign minister stressed.