The impact of the war in Ukraine / The head of the European Initiative for Stability speaks without filters on Bushat's podcast

2023-06-09 18:45:00, Politikë CNA

The impact of the war in Ukraine / The head of the European Initiative for

The next podcast "Public Square" by Ditmir Bushati, deals with the process of integration of the countries of the Western Balkans and the impact of the war in Ukraine on the position of the European Union.

Bushati talks in this episode with Gerald Knaus, head of the European Stability Initiative, an organization that promotes the EU enlargement process and is very close to the Western Balkans.

Ditmir Bushati thinks that the war in Ukraine has re-dimensioned the identity of the enlargement process. With the candidate country status for Ukraine and Moldova, he says that the perception of the political finality of Europe, in a way, has shifted from the Balkans to the countries of the Eastern Partnership.

Gerald Knaus points out that after the war in the East, EU leaders should think about a new enlargement, as the advantages are greater, when it makes war unthinkable and when it creates a large space with a large single market , without barriers between countries and a stronger Europe.

"After this war comes a new opportunity and frankly, I think that if there wasn't a war in Ukraine by Russia right now, I don't believe that the European Union would expand again, because with 27 members, many of these countries are happy with the existing situation. But with the war against Ukraine and the awareness that Europe is not complete and with the war and the destruction of the continent, the wave of refugees, the catastrophes, let's throw everything behind us. I hope that this will be an opportunity for the Western Balkans as well. And this is the reason, this is the moment for the leaders of the Western Balkans to really push the European capitals with great conviction and concentration to change the existing procedure that does not lead to EU accession, which is a necessity", he says.

The head of the European Initiative for Stability also dwells on the statements of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron about the EU enlargement process:

"I am surprised that many people do not listen to exactly what Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron and others are saying. Why can't they give a date for EU membership? Olaf Scholz says that we want to speed up the enlargement process, but he also says that, to make this possible, the European Union must change. He wants to reform the EU, which we know is not going to happen. Let's put it bluntly, take the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, or even some of the old member states, they will not give up their veto on many issues. They don't want to give up and they are saying that they won't. So, if Olaf Scholz says to speed up the enlargement process, but first the EU must change, where all member states agree to no longer have a veto on foreign policy for example, and then a number of EU member states say that we will not give up the veto, then what Olaf Scholz is saying is that this does not depend on the Balkans, it does not depend on you. You can do all the reforms, but if we don't agree between us, you will never join", declares Gerald Knaus.

Bushati and Knaus also address the challenges of regional cooperation between the countries of the Western Balkans and the advantages that their admission to the EU internal market brings.

"The EU proposes a completely contradictory policy, which says that the states of the region should work together and reduce all obstacles between them. But at the moment that Montenegro will join the EU, it will have to restore all obstacles to Albania and Serbia. When Croatia joined the EU, it had to build the most expensive bridge in its history, just to bypass 20 kilometers of Bosnia-Herzegovina territory, because trucks could not cross into Bosnia. So, if Albania or Montenegro joins the EU, you will have to restore all these controls against Kosovo or against Serbia. This doesn't make sense. The way to integrate the countries of the region, all the countries of the region, is to make them move towards the European internal market. Then the barriers between the countries of the region disappear. I think that this can be offered to Kosovo today. This is the response to Kosovo's application for membership in the EU, to tell the Kosovars: if you meet the criteria and we help you to meet them, you too can join the EU's internal market", declares Gerald Knaus, head of the European Initiative for Stability.

According to Gerald Knaus, Ukraine should avoid the path followed by the Western Balkans.

"If they are offered the same process that was offered to Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania, they will be as disappointed in five years as many people in the Balkans are now. They should seek to have a merit-based process that depends on them when they will be part of the internal market. At the same time, the advanced countries in the Balkans, NATO members, those that are better integrated, such as Montenegro, Albania, should say that if you propose this to Ukraine, we ask that it be proposed to us in the Balkans as well. This is how Europe has always worked. If in the next 4 years the Western Balkans is admitted to Schengen, there will no longer be visible borders, outside the EU and within the region. And they are all within the internal market, so anyone from the Western Balkans can work anywhere, any business from abroad can go anywhere in the Balkans and the same rules apply. What a vision of peace and uninterrupted prosperity!", emphasizes the head of the European Initiative for Stability./ CNA.al