Berlin summit is expected to bring results in dialogue, experts say

The upcoming Berlin Process Summit, which will be held on 3 November, is not expected to have any Kosovo-Serbia final agreement.

The Berlin Summit, which is held for the first time under the leadership of the new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, by foreign policy connoisseurs, is seen as continuing past summits, without producing any solution for the Western Balkans.

However, analysts estimate that the war in Ukraine has caused the European Union to turn its attention to the Western Balkan countries, which these states have, in their opinion, remained unEuropean.

University Professor Dorajet Imer says the November 3rd summit is the continuation of summits for 25 years.

“In fact, many summits of this nature have been maintained, which can be said that in addition to the Kurdish statements of European Union policy carriers who invite for the fulfillment of European criteria it is not that we recently had some real determination of the main EU acts to eventually follow the Balkans”, says Imer.

If we go back to retrospect the situation turns out to be more complex than this statement because the integration process of Balkan states towards the European Union has begun more than 25 years, with summits being held at that time, to show the way these countries should follow. The European Union's delay in Europeanising the Balkans and its focus in the East have left the Balkans out of streams”, he says further.

“The new positions that have occurred in the report with Russia have proved that the Balkans cannot be sidelined, so I consider the meeting as the next summit to be held in October for the Berlin process, is very important for the Balkans itself, because it is considered to restore the European Union's focus on these states”, he said.

As for visits by diplomats, Imer considers them to be a boost to dialogue and is seen as their requirement for final agreements. He says Kosovo and Serbia have become clear that these two states must produce a solution.

The “is expected to be recently required that Kosovo and Serbia produce a deal, the commitment of German Chancellor and French president's foreign advisers, is on this line, so they have made it clear to Serbia and Kosovo that they must produce a quick solution, meaning that we have many factors involved in this process, and the Berlin process proves that perhaps through its mechanisms it can bring the sides to an agreement that would be acceptable<x1.

While international relations professor Avni Mazrreku sees the European Union's enlargement as a failure, while he does not expect membership of these states in the EU.

Mazrek says that seeing EU enlargement fail, Western Balkan states have lost their enthusiasm for EU membership.

“Looking from a point of view, the impasse of Western Balkan countries in relation to membership in the European Union, or even identifying it as the failure of the EU's enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans, does not seem an optimistic situation for any of the Balkan countries to realise their membership in the European Union, and that I think is not only the failure of Western Balkan states' efforts to join the EU, but the enthusiasm for expanding the European Union itself. Next meetings involving the strengthening of the Berlin agenda go to the post of reconsidering the EU enlargement policy”, Mazreku said. / EO