Juncker waves ‘credible EU prospects’ at Balkans, but no fast membership

13-09-2017 (updated: 05-10-2017 )

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during the State of the Union address last year. [European Parliament]

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker stayed true to form on the EU’s enlargement prospects in his annual address on Wednesday (13 September), calling for a “credible enlargement perspective” for the Western Balkans while ruling out any fast track to membership.

“If we want more stability in our neighbourhood, then we need to offer a credible enlargement prospect to the countries of the Western Balkans,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg in his State of the European Union speech.

'The🇪🇺#EU must maintain a credible #enlargement perspective for the #WesternBalkans'.Important message by Pres. @JunckerEU at #SOTEU speech. pic.twitter.com/12iVk2qfXD

— Genoveva Ruiz (@CalaveraRuiz) September 13, 2017

As soon as the applause from more than 700 MEPs and guests died down, the veteran of EU politics went on to caution:

“It is clear that there will be no further enlargement during the mandate of this Commission and this Parliament [in 2019]. No candidate is ready yet. But thereafter, the EU will be greater than 27 in number.”

Of the six Western Balkans countries, only Serbia and Montenegro have opened accession talks. Albania and Macedonia have been granted candidate status while the two economically poorest states, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, are lagging behind.

In a separate move, Juncker and Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans outlined ten short- and medium-term priorities in a letter to the Estonian presidency, one of which was to prepare a “strategy for a successful EU accession of Serbia and Montenegro as frontrunner candidates in the Western Balkans”.

.@EU_Commission letter of intent: https://t.co/zBozYvWfDO: p. 9: new strategy f accession of Balkans, #Serbia, #Montenegro as frontrunners

— Michael Karnitschnig (@MiKarnitschnig) September 13, 2017

Economic and democratic reforms have been slow across the Western Balkans, which remains burdened by lingering ethnic hostilities more than two decades after the Yugoslav federation broke up.

There were few immediate reactions in the region to Juncker’s remarks. A lone comment from a Serbian man on Facebook summed up the reason:

“Nothing new there, this is what he said three years ago”.

The Commission boss seized the opportunity to take another stab at Turkey, recalling the need for all EU hopefuls to respect the rule of law and human rights.

“Accession candidates must give the rule of law, justice and fundamental rights utmost priority. This rules out EU membership for Turkey for the foreseeable future. Turkey has been taking giant strides away from the European Union for some time,” he emphasised.

Good to hear @JunckerEU reaffirm #EU commitment to Western #Balkans. But end of the road nearer for #Turkey https://t.co/ZV7N7eMaYB #SOTEU

— James Ker-Lindsay (@JamesKerLindsay) September 13, 2017

Juncker says Erdogan's Turkey taking giant steps away from EU

Turkey is taking “giant steps” away from Europe and it is entirely the fault of the “Erdoğan system”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday (29 August) in his strongest comments to date against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule.

On a more positive note, he said Croatia, which joined the bloc in 2013, should be allowed to join the passport-free Schengen area “once it meets all the criteria”. Croatia’s EU neighbour Slovenia has indicated recently it may seek to block Zagreb from joining Schengen because of a border row between the two former ex-Yugoslav republics.

Stop your blackmail, Croatian PM tells Slovenia as tensions continue

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković urged fellow EU member Slovenia on Thursday (7 September) to stop its diplomatic “blackmail” related to a border issue between the two ex-Yugoslav republics and return to dialogue.

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Comments

2 responses to “Juncker waves ‘credible EU prospects’ at Balkans, but no fast membership”

an european says:

13/09/2017 at 13:19

This is a century disaster by adding more and more States to the E.U. by throwing the main Problem away which is the lack of fiscal a Budget of the Eurozone !

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Elefterios Mitsos says:

14/09/2017 at 01:18

There will be zero tolerance with FYROM. If Zaev wanted to mend relations with Greece he would have announced the demolition of the grotesque Italian made Hellenic reproduction statues that litter the FYROM landscape, the renaming of the airport in Skopje, the renaming of the highway, the renaming of the football stadium, the removal of the repulsive Baroque Hellenic style facades, the correcting of school carriculum, the removal of the Hellenic symbol on the national flag, the removal of all greater Macedonia maps from government institutions and a heartfelt apolgy to the nation of Greece for his nation being vile for the last two and a half decades. Cultural theft cannot be forgiven easily. Actions speak louder than words. Greeks do not want to hear politicians trying new age diplomacy that they learnt in their political science classes. Dimitrov, Šekerinska, Zaevand all the Slavic Fyromians currently running FYROM are just as dogmatic about an exclusivity of the name as the Gruevski ultra nationalists. There is no scope for negotiation with these antiques. Greece is the victim here. Our history has been hijacked by Fyromian Slavs. Leave our history alone. It’s not a good fit for you. You cannot pronounce nor read the Ancient inscriptions for they are in Greek. If FYROM wants exclusivity to the name Macedonia they will have to change their official language to Greek for this corresponds with the Ancient Macedonian language. We Greeks embrace everyone as a Hellene as long as they speak Greek. You cannot have Bulgarian speaking Slavs of FYROM claiming they are Antiques. It’s ridiculous.
Sekerinska can sit around bagging the VMRO for their crimes but she is just as bad. She claims she is a Slav and a non Antique and in the same breath attacks Greece for not recognizing FYROM. I thought that her hair incident would have knocked some sense into her. Dimitrov has also had a go at it. The fool was part of the negotiation team under Gruevski. He failed miserably because he too will never give up the name. These Slavs are like a dog with a bone but in their case the bone is plastic and has zero marrow.
They know what they have to do and it will never happen. The constitutional name will not change because the antiquated population of FYROM will never vote for it. They have had way too many history lessons from Milenko Nedelkovski. The vile sneaky tactics of attempting to be admitted to NATO and the EU under their provisional FYROM name won’t work either. They are fruitless attempts at diplomacy that not only waste time but also soak up tax payers efforts. Think twice FYROM before attempting negotiations with the Greeks on their history. The Albanian, Roma and Turkish birth rate is twice that of the Slavs. While you lot are busy fixating about exclusivity of your name and your antique culture the non Slavic population of FYROM will become a majority group within their ancient wonderland. The last census was in 2001, these so called minority groups were are 35% collectively. I would hate to think what they are at now. 16 years of fertile breeding has to be worrying for the new government. Back off our history you deluded farm animals.

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Juncker waves ‘credible EU prospects’ at Balkans, but no fast membership

Juncker says Erdogan's Turkey taking giant steps away from EU

Stop your blackmail, Croatian PM tells Slovenia as tensions continue

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