Grubjesic: Integration of Western Balkans is unfinished business, EU is hope and disappointment

The only surprise in the news that there is no agreement in the EU to give guarantees for future membership to the Balkan Six is that it is no longer hidden that enlargement is a forbidden word in some members of the Union - Grubjesic stressed

Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

There is no agreement in the European Union on giving guarantees for future membership to the Balkan Six, and the vice president of the Center for Foreign Policy, Suzana Grubjesic, says that this news is not a surprise.

"This news is not a surprise to anyone who follows the EU, but it may be a surprise that it is no longer hidden that enlargement is a forbidden word in some EU member states. This Western Balkans-EU summit, just like the previous two - in Sofia in 2018 and in Zagreb in 2020, cannot offer to the Western Balkans anything more than a European perspective or some similar phrase without content," Grubjesic stated.

According to her, precisely for that reason, it should come as no surprise that the peoples and citizens in the Western Balkans have less and less confidence that the EU will ever fulfill the promises made two decades ago.

"Integration of the Western Balkans remains an unfinished business, and the EU remains both hope and disappointment," Grubjesic concluded.

(Telegraf.rs)