British Prime Minister Starmer: Balkans, continent security site

Prime Minister Starmer names the Western Balkans the location of the continent's security establishment. On the day of the Berlin Process Summit Great Britain imposed sanctions on gangs of traffickers from the Balkans.

Great Britain this year is hosting the Berlin Process Summit. Leaders from Western Balkan countries, such as Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, have been invited to London. As he opened on Wednesday (22.10) talks with Balkan leaders in London, which focused mainly on how to cope with the challenge of migration, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke for the Western Balkans as Europe's “critical geox1>, the German news agency quoted dpa. The region has been described as the crossroads of Europe, but it is also the place where our continent's “security is tested”, Starmer said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, together with foreign ministers from France, Greece and Italy, and EU in charge of Foreign Policy Kaya Kallas from the European Commission, were also in talks.

Starmer said talks this time focus on security, migration and economic growth. Balkan leaders also discuss how to address Russia's malicious “influence”, rooting out corruption and common migration issues, the AFP agency writes.

Great Britain on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Balkan-based gangs and funders that help facilitate small-ship sea crossings, as migrants' arrivals this year through the La Mansha Canal are expected to exceed the total of 2024. The last sanctions of the United Kingdom are taken at a time when Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces great pressure in the country to prevent illegal entry into the UK. They became known, while Starmer waited for European leaders at the Western Balkans summit.

By detailing the new measures, the British Foreign Ministry said they hit the Krasniqi network and its leaders, who described as “a Kosovo-based organised crime group responsible for producing forged documents and providing their supplies to criminal gangs”. Also sanctioned is Nusret Seferovic, the alleged leader of a Croatian gang providing Balkan gangs with counterfeit Croatian passports “to facilitate entry into European countries”.

War in Ukraine accelerated integration processes

The UK also wants an agreement on further measures to reduce the number of migrants arriving illegally in this country. The United Kingdom is in talks with some of the countries to host the so-called return centres, where the United Kingdom may send rejected asylum seekers before being deported. Ahead of the summit, Kosovo said it has expressed readiness to host such migrants' centres, while Albania's prime minister reiterated his refusal to them and Montenegro's one appeared to suggest that his country was not planning to wait, but could be affected by investments in its railway infrastructure.

The summit is being held as part of the Berlin Process, launched in 2014 to keep the integration and hope of Balkan countries for membership in the European Union alive. But the only Western Balkan country to join the EU in more than a decade is Croatia, which became a member in 2013. Integration progress for other countries has stalled for years. Aspirants are at different stages of travel towards the EU.

Since Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022 The EU has revived the integration process with the Western Balkans and has further opened to accept new members, such as Ukraine. There are many concerns in the EU that the war in Ukraine and Russia's deepening confrontation with the West could spread to a region still affected by conflicts./ DW