Balkan Countries Advised to Meet Conditions for EU Membership

According to them, the Russian negative impact is another challenge for Western Balkan countries. Experts also stressed that countries of the region should focus more on meeting the technical conditions of EU membership, such as reforming the justice system, transparency and fighting corruption.

There is unrealistic optimism among millions in the Western Balkans for quick membership in the European Union”, said Thomas Countyman, former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, during a discussion at Johns Hopkins University. According to him, Balkan countries should focus more on meeting the technical conditions of the integration process.

It is important for the countries of the region to realize that there is no clear political path towards membership in the European Union. In the past some countries have been successful in membership efforts in the European Union through a clean political path, despite having failed to meet technical conditions. Establishing friendships with the countries of the European Union, promoting membership candidacys is a good thing, but the political argument would be a hundred times stronger if you have met technical conditions, including rule of law”.

Countrymann stressed that rule of the law involves not only the adoption of good laws but the full implementation of them.

“This means the full functioning of independent anti-corruption prosecutors, functioning of the independent judiciary, and an independent media allowed to investigate and find out what governments are doing, which politicians are benefiting. These are essential for a country that wants to consider itself a democratic member of the European Union”.

The Balkans remain the priority of Russian foreign policy, and Moscow sees its presence in the region, including Montenegro, as an attempt to balance the presence of the West there, former Montenegrin Assistant Health Minister Nebojsa Todorovic said. According to him, Moscow's goal is to destabilise the region to prevent further enlargement of NATO and the European Union.

“Russia's strategy in the Balkans is to divide the region into areas of Western and Eastern privileges and interests, based on religion, history and other factors. For example, Russia is exploiting historical and religious ties with Serbia and NATO intervention in 1999 to use it as a platform for extending its influence to the region”.

In this regard, former senior diplomat Thomas County stressed that Russia wants to exercise influence and to encourage Balkan countries to imitate its model of a completely corrupt, non-transparent government that controls the media.

This is not a wise way for any country in the Balkans. Human-faced Putinism is not a formula for membership in the European Union”.

Analyst Daniel Serwer from Johns Hopkins University told the Voice of America that Balkan countries should not ignore Russia's efforts to influence the region's Euro-Atlantic integration processes.

Serbia still flirts with Russia because Russia has influence. Russia exercises its influence legitimately through diplomacy and other ways that may not be legitimate. No politician in the Balkans can ignore the fact that Russia conspired to kill Djukanovic. This will seriously consider”.

A stronger presence of the United States and the European Union is important for the Balkan countries' progress in the Euro-Atlantic integration process, participants said, but according to them the Balkan countries should intensify efforts to strengthen their democratic institutions. At the end of the discussion, University Johns Hopkins honoured former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brian Hoyt Yee for his achievements in a diplomatic career at the State Department.