The Failure of the Open Balkans/ Analyst for CNA: An ill-conceived, non-strategic project

2025-10-22 20:46:00, Politikë CNA

The Failure of the Open Balkans/ Analyst for CNA: An ill-conceived,

Altin Gjeta, analyst and lecturer at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, spoke in an interview with CNA TV about the Western Balkans summit being held in London.

Gjeta said that this has been an annual summit since the Berlin Process was founded by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The analyst stated that this summit focuses on security in the Western Balkans, but also more broadly in Europe, immigration issues, which have an important weight for the United Kingdom, which is leading the Berlin Process summit this year.

"It is an annual summit now, since the Berlin process was founded in 2014 by the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But since the war in Ukraine, I think security issues have come to the forefront on the European continent and this summit has in its focus security in the Western Balkans, but also more broadly in Europe, immigration issues, which have an important weight for the United Kingdom, which is leading this year's Berlin process summit and of course the countries that have hosted the summit, in general have tried to include in the general agenda also issues that are of their national interest. So, it is a meeting of the leaders of the European Union.

The Berlin Process has so far managed to produce around 43 products, which are agreements, in certain structures, which aim to increasingly bring the Western Balkans closer to the European Union, but also to strengthen ties between countries and one of these mechanisms has been the provision of the creation of a regional common market. There are also important projects for the interconnection of infrastructure, railways, highways between countries and significant progress has been made, I would say, also in the issue of the movement of people and goods. However, one of the problems of the Berlin Process is that there is no secretariat, there is no organization that is permanent and follows the implementation of the agreements, because a significant part of these agreements have not been implemented and there is no update on the progress that has been made in the signed agreements", said Gjeta.

Asked whether we can consider the "Open Balkan" project previously initiated by Prime Minister Edi Rama as a failure, Gjeta told CNA that the fact that it was closed shows that it was an ill-conceived, non-strategic project and that European and American actors have returned to the original idea, namely the Berlin process.

"But the fact that the Open Balkans process is not continuing and has been interrupted for more than two years now shows that it was an ill-conceived, non-strategic project and that European and American actors have returned to the original idea, the Berlin process. Even in a completely new international context, where Europe and Western democracies are in a difficult moment, I would say. And of course they aim for the Western Balkans to remain stable, sustainable and to increasingly align with the European Union.

I personally think that not enough has been done, because the objective, the objectives of European leadership in general have been electoral of the moment, it has not been seen beyond the electoral cycles, because the fact that we are more than 10 years after the initiation of the Berlin process, when none of the Western Balkan countries has been integrated into the European Union. There have even been problems with security issues and tensions, as you know, in September 2023 in the north of Kosovo, armed people, organized and most likely supported by the state structure in Serbia, carried out a terrorist attack on the territory of another independent state. Also, relations between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, are problematic because Serbia there encourages separatist tendencies, that is, division, seeks to disintegrate Bosnia, by separating the Republika Srpska, which is led by Bosnian Serbs.

And I think that the fact that one of the main political pillars of the Berlin process, as it was and remains the solution of bilateral problems between countries, has not been realized, means that at the political level the process has not had the expected success. And I think that this summit is not going to produce anything very important, because unfortunately, I think, a kind of unhealthy interdependence has been created between the Balkan countries and the European Union in general, the Western powers. So much more was expected from the countries of the region for possible progress, judging by the dictates, the humor, the appetite, or the will of the European countries to integrate them into the European Union, than concrete steps have been taken, which would automatically bring these countries closer to the standards of the European Union. "I think that this unhealthy relationship has created a kind of status quo, a kind of stagnation, which is now difficult to break because interdependence has created a lack of orientation, but also the will and vision to break it, because the West is now more pragmatic in a multipolar international order and seeks to resolve the immediate crises it faces, such as the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, but also with a kind of eventual withdrawal of democratic values ??that has occurred within the European continent itself. So it is caught up in several problems and I think that progress towards the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European Union will be problematic, despite the talk of an acceleration of the process," said Gjeta./ CNA