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EU-Balkans, meeting of foreign ministers to increase cooperation

2024-06-24 17:05:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

EU-Balkans, meeting of foreign ministers to increase cooperation

Illustrative photo

Senior European Union officials said on Monday that the bloc should continue working towards the membership of Western Balkan countries, a longstanding commitment that has gained weight due to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

These comments were made on the eve of a meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union with the foreign ministers of the six countries of the Western Balkans, to increase cooperation in the field of security and foreign affairs.

The head of Italian diplomacy, Antonio Tajani, said that the European Union should move forward with the membership of the Balkan countries in the bloc.

"We must continue towards full membership before 2030 for the countries of the Western Balkans and then we must work with Ukraine and Moldova", he said, underlining that the Balkan countries have been candidates for many years.

The Foreign Minister of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg, said that it is important that the European Union continues to maintain the momentum for the membership of the neighboring countries.

"We recognize that we have third parties, be it Russia, China or others, who are exerting their influence. The Balkans and Eastern Europe are our immediate neighborhood. Both regions are about five hundred kilometers from Vienna. We must manage to counter this ring of fire that surrounds us, the European Union, with a ring of stability and security. For me, this is the biggest geostrategic task of the European Union", said the Austrian foreign minister.

Kosovo's Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla said that the integration of countries that support European values ??is not only a political issue.

"But there are more security issues in Europe, at a time when we face Russian aggression against Ukraine, and a stronger European Union is a better answer to the challenges of today and in the future," said Minister Gërvalla.

The European Union asks the countries of the Western Balkans to overcome the problems between them and commit to good neighborliness. The block has conditioned the European integrations for Kosovo and Serbia with the implementation of the agreement on the normalization of relations, for which the parties agreed last year in Brussels and Ohrid.

In an effort to encourage implementation, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has invited the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, to Brussels on Wednesday afternoon. According to the warning, their separate meetings with European officials will be held at 3 p.m., followed by a tripartite meeting.

The two leaders have not met since September of last year, while they have not yet taken steps to fulfill the obligations arising from the agreement with all the pressure of the bloc. Kosovo has not yet started the process of establishing the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, while Serbia has said that it will not implement the parts of the agreement that lead to the 'de facto' or 'de jure' recognition of Kosovo.

The European Union has emphasized several times that the agreement, although not signed, is legally binding for both parties.

Although none of the leaders have spoken about the expectations from Wednesday's meeting, opposition parties in Kosovo criticized on Monday Prime Minister Albin Kurti Kundruall's approach to the negotiation process while expressing their belief that the issue of association is expected to be at the center of the meeting./ Voa