B01AB20
05-17-2018, 06:11 PM
EU woos Western Balkans but is coy on membership
SOFIA (Reuters) - The European Union offered six Western Balkan countries closer ties on Thursday but said they could count on no fast-track to membership - as much because of their regional problems, as well as due to the bloc’s own fatigue.
EU leaders met their counterparts from the six - Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo - at a summit, agreeing to build more energy links and work more closely on issues from countering radicalism to controlling migration.
After years of neglecting the region, the EU has been spurred into action by the growing influence of other powers there, including Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
The region in 2015-16 also became a main route for a wave of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa heading to wealthier European nations to the north.
Many in the EU fear importing Western Balkan problems and feuds, especially at a time when the bloc is still recovering from economic and migration crises that have fueled euro-scepticism among its own voters.
The shocks of the last decade also made some EU founders question eastern expansion and Western Balkans skeptics point to problems in the region ranging from organized crime in Albania to Macedonia’s name dispute with EU state Greece.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-balkans/eu-leaders-to-woo-west-balkan-states-but-road-to-membership-bumpy-idUSKCN1IH2ZE
At least this time EU has been not so stupid and hypocrite as many others times.
SOFIA (Reuters) - The European Union offered six Western Balkan countries closer ties on Thursday but said they could count on no fast-track to membership - as much because of their regional problems, as well as due to the bloc’s own fatigue.
EU leaders met their counterparts from the six - Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo - at a summit, agreeing to build more energy links and work more closely on issues from countering radicalism to controlling migration.
After years of neglecting the region, the EU has been spurred into action by the growing influence of other powers there, including Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
The region in 2015-16 also became a main route for a wave of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa heading to wealthier European nations to the north.
Many in the EU fear importing Western Balkan problems and feuds, especially at a time when the bloc is still recovering from economic and migration crises that have fueled euro-scepticism among its own voters.
The shocks of the last decade also made some EU founders question eastern expansion and Western Balkans skeptics point to problems in the region ranging from organized crime in Albania to Macedonia’s name dispute with EU state Greece.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-balkans/eu-leaders-to-woo-west-balkan-states-but-road-to-membership-bumpy-idUSKCN1IH2ZE
At least this time EU has been not so stupid and hypocrite as many others times.