Borrell: Divisive Rhetoric in 2021 Hampered Western Balkans’ Efforts on EU Path  

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell (Beta/Milos Miskov)

EU High Representative Josep Borrell has said that the rise in divisive rhetoric and actions across the Western Balkans have hampered efforts to bring the six countries closer to their European future. 

In a blog looking back on the most important events in 2021, Borrell, speaking of the EU foreign policy, said that divisive rhetoric especially referred to Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The rise in divisive rhetoric and actions across the Western Balkans especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina have also hampered efforts to bring the six countries closer to their European future,” Borrell has noted in his review of 2021.   

 He has also written that “as hybrid conflicts proliferate,” the EU “must continue to back Ukraine or Moldavia in resisting the pressure from Russia, and maintain an unyielding approach to Belarus.”  

Borrell described 2021 as “a year of transitions,” noting that geopolitical changes “have intensified with power politics repeatedly challenging the EU and its values.”