British Commentator: Vucic-Rama Proposal to Prevent Instability in the Balkans, European Union

(BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

A proposal by Aleksandar Vucic and Edi Rama for the European Union’s candidate countries to join the single market and the visa-free Schengen area represents the best path to preventing instability in the Western Balkans and across Europe, says Tony Barber, a longtime Europe editor and columnist for the Financial Times.

“The best way forward is to implement the Vucic-Rama plan, showing people in the Western Balkans and in the European Union alike that a shared future is mutually beneficial,” Barber wrote in an opinion piece for the Brussels-based portal EUalive (eualive.net). Referring to the initiative put forward by the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Albania in a joint article published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the end of February, Barber noted that “such ideas are already circulating in Brussels, as well as in Berlin and Paris.”

“Economic integration would benefit both the Western Balkans and the member states of the European Union. The new approach would skip awkward issues such as changing the composition of the European Commission, adding members to the European Parliament, revising voting procedures in the EU, and, above all, granting veto rights to new member states,” he said. According to Barber, the proposal by the two leaders “should not be seen as a substitute for full membership in the European Union, which must remain the long-term goal for the Western Balkans.”

The columnist added that it will not be easy for all countries in the region to meet the conditions even for entry into the single market, and that much hard work on reforms is still required. However, he stressed that EU enlargement is an area where Europeans “have the power to shape events to their advantage,” and that the Balkan region should be a priority for the European Union when it comes to enlargement. “It is encouraging that both the European Union and some candidate countries are finally thinking about enlargement in a sufficiently creative way to enable many ambitious members to be brought under the European Union umbrella within five years,” Barber concluded.