The EU and US have voiced concern on Chinese and Russian influence in the Balkans as the region's countries prepare to move closer to Western bloc.
China could replace the EU as a major player in the region, German foreign minister Heiko Maas told the Bundestag in a speech on Wednesday (12 September).
See at: https://euobserver.com/foreign/142823
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is to visit Western Balkans capitals amid wider efforts to counter Russian and Chinese influence there.
His trip, from 26 February to 1 March, will take in Belgrade, Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, and Tirana before concluding in Sofia, which currently holds the EU presidency.
Todor Gardos, researcher with the Human Rights Watch, writes in an opinion piece for EUobserver that the new European Commission strategy for enlargement of the EU, expected to be presented on February 6, could be greeted with skepticism at the Western Balkans. However, if the EU is willing to end its 'drift policy' and commit to support of human rights and the rule of law, "it could be a new beginning."
Bekim Collaku, chief of staff to the president of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, writes in an opinion piece that as the European Commission gets ready to publish its strategy on the Western Balkans, "it is crucial that we all feature equally prominently in the strategy and that we are all given the same perspective. Any talk of 'frontrunners' inevitably makes the rest 'leftovers'," Collaku writes.
Leading EU countries and the US have warned Kosovo of "severe consequences" if it walked away from a tribunal on war crimes allegations.
"We urge all Kosovo's leaders … to speak out against this initiative and honestly inform Kosovo's citizens of the severe negative consequences, including for Kosovo's international and Euro-Atlantic integration, if Kosovo continues on this path," France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US said on
https://euobserver.com/enlargement/140457
Bernard Kouchner, a former French minister for foreign and European affairs, co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontières, founder of Médecins du Monde, and the former UN Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, writes in an op-ed for EUobserver that next year is expected to be an important period for the Western Balkans countries and their European perspective.
This Friday, on 17 February, Kosovo leaders will raise a glass to celebrate their achievements from nine years of independence, but many will not be there to cheer with them.
While in many areas Kosovo’s statehood has been strengthened, little has changed in the lives of ordinary people. After nine years of independence Kosovars are still locked in isolation and poverty. They still find themselves unemployed, without health care, a working education system or any hope to find a job, while those who do work hardly make ends meet.
Over a dozen European interior ministers vowed to impose more measures to curtail migrants from using the Western Balkan routes in their efforts to seek better lives outside Greece.
https://euobserver.com/migration/136844
Delegations from Belgrade and Pristina will meet on Tuesday (24 January) in Brussels for another round of talks sponsored by EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini.
This time, the two sides are sending their top people: Serbia will be represented by prime minister Aleksandar Vucic and president Tomislav Nikolic, while Kosovo is sending its counterparts Isa Mustafa and Hashim Thaci.
https://euobserver.com/foreign/136639
Ethnic Albanian leaders in Serbia have declared a new structure on the model of an EU-brokered deal for Serbs in Kosovo.
https://euobserver.com/foreign/130248