Kalypso Aude Nicolaïdis, a Franco-Greek professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, admitted that the members of the group, chaired by former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González, "didn't have the room to be more specific" on enlargement.
However, she said all the group's members were extremely committed to EU membership for the Western Balkans.
Since Bulgaria and Romania joined the bloc in 2007, the EU has been extremely careful not to give dates for concluding accession negotiations with candidate countries or target membership dates to any EU hopeful.
Only Croatia is believed to be able to conclude accession negotiations in the course of this year, ahead of joining the Union in 2012. Other Western Balkan countries such as Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania remain in the dark as to their EU perspectives.
2014 is a symbolic date as it marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. The conflict was triggered on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, today's capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when a student, Gavrilo Princip, shot dead Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.
"Indeed, we discussed the idea of making 2014 a benchmark date whereby the countries in the region would be given an absolute, firm commitment on accession and a clear road map laying out the last part of the journey," she said.
Nicolaïdis said that in the meantime, the EU would strengthen the conditions that empower "agents for change" in each of these countries, especially when it comes to their capacity to fight nepotism and corruption by holding their governments to account.
"I believe that Greece in particular is committed to this agenda – starting in its own backyard of course!," said Nicolaïdis, who has advised current Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on European affairs since 1996.
Professor Nicolaïdis also advocated holding "agoras" or open "places of assembly" - like those of Ancient Greece - to discuss European policies, involving large groups of citizens across Europe.
"With George Papandreou, we started promoting the idea of an Agora Europe in 2002, during the European Convention […] But let me also stress that the idea of Agora Europe that we are promoting is on a different scale – like a few hundred of these agora in the same week! And it would be multi-dimensional, more like a pop festival," she said.
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