When talking about the enlargement of the European Union The cautious thing to do is not to set dates. But the future Commissioner for the sector, the Slovenian Marta Kos, is optimistic, at least with two of the candidates for entry, and she made this clear on Thursday at her hearing before the European Parliament; considers that Montenegro could be ready in 2026 and Albania could comply in 2027., he explained to MEPs. “I will do everything I can to prepare the Balkans for accession and we have a good chance, as for the first time in 10 years we have real options of bringing one or two candidates to the end of the negotiation process,” he explained.
Montenegro is in fact the most advanced country in talks with the EU bloc, but the Balkans are not a monolithic bloc.and this is also taken into account by Kos, especially in the case of Serbia, which has become a kind of partner of Putin’s Russia and has jeopardized its path towards the EU. The Slovenian has preferred to relativize. Even President Aleksandar Vucic,” she said. has said that he will do everything possible to align all his legislation to the acquis communautaireThis is a great achievement, but these words have to be fulfilled,” he said, aware of the difficulties Belgrade is facing right now.
In Kos’s words the Western Balkans “are facing their great opportunity” and bilateral relations with these countries and also among themselves “must not be an obstacle” to their European route. “Nothing can be a permanent problem.”He warned the political groups, especially aware of the brakes that have been put in place in recent years, for example in North Macedonia.
And what about Ukraine? Kos is being cautious here, since it has agreed to open negotiations with both Kiev and Moldova for the time being. This does not mean, however, that the demands will be less. “There will be no shortcuts, nor will I encourage speed over the quality of the process.”Kos recalled one of the great clichés about EU enlargement: “It is a marathon and not a sprint”. This means that neither of these two countries are going to join the Union in the short term.
The Ukrainian chaos is special. Enlargement policy should be “the guiding star for Ukraine.”The Slovenian woman said during her parliamentary examination, in which she also wanted to emphasize the fact that Ukraine and Moldova “are not competitors” and do not have equal processes, because Kiev is in an “unprecedented” situation: it is the first time that the EU is proposing to negotiate the entry of a country that is currently at war. “We have a moral duty to be their greatest ally.”Kos said, because this is also “a message” for the citizens.
All candidates, moreover, have to understand in which scenario they are moving, and the burden does not fall on nations, but on the responsibility of governments. In this regard, Kos has promised “zero tolerance” for countries that go backwards in terms of democracy and attack their civil society.l; he stressed that democracy “is not built only in Parliament and the courts”, in a kind of warning to Serbia itself as well as to Georgia, where pro-Russian forces continue to rule after recent elections about which there are serious doubts in Brussels.