Former Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle told an audience today (7 December) that if the EU distances itself from the Western Balkans, other geopolitical players will immediately seize the opportunity to assert their influence over the region.

The ex-Commissioner, who now works as a special envoy to the Balkans for the Czech ministry of foreign affairs, spoke to the BALKANS – boosting connections on the road to the EU conference, organised by the Friends of Europe, a Brussels think tank.

Koha Ditore runs an op-ed by Stefan Fule, the European Commission's Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighborhood Policy. When I joined the European Commission five years ago to deal with EU enlargement, who could have imagined that Kosovo would have made so much progress on its European path since? To start with, a major building block of our relations has been put in place this July: Kosovo has initialled a Stabilisation and Association Agreement – SAA for short – with the European Union. It is not just a formality.