Five EU top diplomats demand urgent debate on Balkans

The foreign ministers of Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Czechia have urged the chief of European Union diplomacy to urgently put the Western Balkans in line at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, naming the region as of particular importance.

In a letter sent to EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, these states said that given the war in Ukraine and the impact it may have on EU countries, the Council of Foreign Affairs must discuss strategy in the Western Balkans during April.

The ministers said that “since only a few weeks have passed since our last discussion of the Western Balkans, the geopolitical situation has experienced a major change due to the unprotested and untested aggression of Russia towards Ukraine”.

“In this context, the Western Balkans have a particular significance, given the key strategic position as the region surrounded by EU member states”, says on paper.

The top diplomats of the five EU states praised the visit Borrell paid in March in Skopje, Tirana and Sarajevo, which, according to them, witnessed the European bloc's strong commitment to the Western Balkans.

“The EU has to do everything to prevent the damaging effects of attack on Ukraine in the Western Balkans. It is even more urgent than ever before to give a boost to the region's EU-“integration process, Rel reports.

In all, the ministers sought to accelerate the visa liberalisation process for Kosovo, launch membership negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia, grant the country's candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and speed up the negotiation process with Montenegro and Serbia.

“We need to have a new view on issues like the quick start of membership negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia, finding the way to accelerating negotiations, which are under way, membership with Montenegro and Serbia, to advance with visa liberalisation for Kosovo, and to support the consolidation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's unity to obtain candidate status”, five EU foreign ministers have written.

The letter was also asked to increase practical co-operation with the Balkan states, as well as these states, is provided assistance in order to deal with the economic consequences that Russian aggression has caused, in particular, in increasing food prices and other products.

Letters sent by Borrell '%, who heads the Council of Foreign Affairs, have signed Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Czechian Jan Lipavsky, Hungarian Chief Diplomat, Peter Szijarto, Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok and Slovenian Anze Logar.

The next meeting of EU foreign ministers will be held on 11 April in Luxembourg. It is still not clear whether the topic of the Western Balkans will be put in order day after, according to diplomatic sources, the current situation in Ukraine and the alleged crimes of Russian forces, require that the ministers' focus be on Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

But more and more EU states and MEPs are demanding that the Western Balkans be focused because of Russia's risk of influence in the region and the possibility of escalating tensions.