BRUSSELS — The EU waited too long to bring the Western Balkan countries into its orbit, according to Serbia’s Europe minister.
Belgrade’s head of European integration, Tanja Miščević, said on Monday that although the bloc reacted quickly to Ukraine’s potential membership, the EU’s “lack of momentum” in the Western Balkans tarnished the bloc’s reputation in the region.
“The EU did not react as quickly as it did with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia two years ago, or today. They did not experience the same type of reaction at the beginning of this century when it came to the Western Balkans,” Miščević told POLITICO in Brussels, where she attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers and of their Balkan counterparts.
Miščević added that after the end of the Yugoslav wars, the European Union The appetite for enlargement “was not as enthusiastic as today, there was no momentum…like…created today, mainly because of Ukraine”.
So-called enlargement fatigue has triggered a decline in pro-European sentiment in the Western Balkans, the minister added. Popular support for Serbia’s EU membership now stands at 33 percent, far lower than in most other countries in the region, report says Demostat Investigation.
New enlargement momentum
Russia’s war against Ukraine has given new impetus to EU expansion and revived the membership applications of most Western Balkan countries, which have been stuck in the waiting room for nearly of a decade.
In last week’s enlargement report Reporting on the situation of potential EU members, the European Commission supported the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and granted candidate status to Georgia.
But the EU executive chastised Belgrade for its failure to sanction Russia and the lack of progress in efforts to defuse tensions with Kosovo – two issues blocking Serbia’s path to EU membership.
There is little hope that EU leaders will agree to move forward with negotiations with Serbia at a crucial meeting scheduled for December 14-15.
Serbia has a lot to lose by sanctioning Russia, as it has relied on Moscow for almost 90 percent of its gas supplies. But the country is trying to wean itself off Russian oil and gas by striking deals with Azerbaijan and increasing energy flows with its regional partners, Miščević said.
She argued that Serbia’s position towards Russia is “not ideological.” It’s purely in our economic interest,” while admitting that Western sanctions against Belgrade during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s “also shaped a lot of feelings” in the country.
The minister stressed that Serbia shares the fundamental principles of the EU and that it “feels embarrassed by the fact that people question the value side of Serbia” due to its reluctance to sanction Russia.
In another clash between Brussels and Belgrade, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen recently called on Serbia to “de facto recognize” Kosovo, which Belgrade considers a breakaway republic that self-proclaimed independence in 2008. But Serbia insists recognition is a necessity. Do not go.
Miščević said that such demands from Brussels are exaggerated given that five EU countries — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain — do not themselves recognize Kosovo.
“Recognition is not the theme of the normalization process between Belgrade and Pristina. If recognition was the problem, normalization would not happen at all,” she said.
In 2023 Serbia and Kosovo agreed to “recognize their respective documents and national symbols, including passports, diplomas, license plates and customs stamps”, but have not implemented the agreement.
The Serbian minister also demanded a greater role for candidate countries in shaping key reforms that will define the future structure of the EU.
EU leaders have begun discussions on how to adapt the bloc to ensure it can absorb new member countries before the end of the decade.
“Serbia, when it joins the European Union, will not join the EU of today but the EU of tomorrow. So we need to follow how the EU of tomorrow is supposed to be built and I am sure there are many questions that we can add to this development,” Miščević said.
In a non-binding document published earlier this week, a group of seven countries – including Italy, Greece and Austria – proposed, among other things, more regular participation of Balkan countries in foreign ministers’ meetings of the EU with the aim of accelerating the integration of the region. in the EU.
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