European Union Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned on Friday (5 October) of a possible new war in the Balkans if Bosnia, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo do not feel the EU is serious about offering them future membership.
See at: https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/juncker-raises-spectre-of-new-balkans-war/
Martina Larkin, head of Europe and Eurasia and a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, writes that as Europe is confronted by different visions about its future, the question is how these visions will affect the Western Balkans. Larkin argues for the need to ensure a sustainable, long-term development of the Balkans region in order to deliver a stable political environment and further economic growth and investment.
All six countries in the Western Balkans have a European perspective, and Serbia as one of the leaders in the process could help the entire region’s progress towards membership, Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in Belgrade on Wednesday (7 February).
EXCLUSIVE / Serbia and Montenegro are seen as the two Western Balkan frontrunners to join the EU but Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić told EURACTIV.com in a wide-ranging interview that joining the soon-to-be 27-country bloc is a matter of endurance and not a competition.
“For Serbia, joining the EU is like a marathon,” Brnabić told EURACTIV. “When you run a marathon you are not competing against anyone else but yourself. In that sense, I don’t think any country should be bothered by who is the front or second runner.”
Leading western powers voiced concern yesterday(13 August)at political deadlock in Kosovo,which has still not formed a government two months after snap elections in the tiny country,a former Serbian province.
Britain,France,Germany,Italy and United States said it was“the responsibility of Kosovo’s leaders”to form a parliament and government
https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/western-powers-concerned-at-kosovo-political-deadlock/llowing the June ballots.
Kosovo is facing political crisis after its new parliament failed to elect a speaker on Thursday (3 August), casting doubt on whether the coalition that won June’s snap election can muster a majority.
http://bit.ly/2wd8War
Denis MacShane, former UK Minister for the Balkans, writes in an op-ed that elections in Kosovo have produced a result that shows the spectre of ultra-nationalism and populist rejection of Europe is not the exclusive property of Donald Trump and Europe’s nationalist-populist ideologues.
Nine years after proclaiming independence, fragile Kosovo votes Sunday (11 June) at a time of high tension with Serbia, rampant unemployment and some of its leaders threatened with prosecution for war crimes.
The European Union hopes six Balkan countries will agree at a summit on July 12 in Italy to create a regional common market that could be working within a year, a top EU official said on Tuesday (6 June), in the bloc’s latest step to re-engage the region.
The chief of UNMIK, the UN mission in Kosovo, Zahir Tanin warned of rising tensions in Kosovo and weakening trust between Belgrade and Pristina during Tuesday’s UN Security Council session (16 May).