EU and Western Balkans Summit in Brussels

(Patria) - The European Union and Western Balkans Summit, the first attended by the new European Commission, began this evening in Brussels, reports RSE.

The new President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said it was an important meeting because the EU and the Western Balkans belong to the same European family.

Costa reaffirmed that enlargement is a priority for the new structures within the EU.

According to Costa, enlargement towards the countries of the region will benefit everyone, and most importantly, bring concrete prosperity to the citizens of the Western Balkans.

The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, stated before the start of the Summit that the Western Balkans region is very important for the EU.

- It is clear that the European Commission, together with me, truly wants to see progress in the enlargement process over the next five years of the mandate, and we are ready to work on it - Kallas said.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, pointed out that in the last decade, more countries have left the EU than have joined it.

- It is time to reverse that trend. Enlargement is the EU's strongest geopolitical tool, and the larger it is, the stronger the EU is - Metsola said.

She warned that if the EU does not work on integrating the Western Balkan countries, then someone else will take advantage of it.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assessed that this is an important Summit with countries that were promised EU membership two decades ago.

- And now we must bring this process to a complete end with a completely new pace, so that accession prospects transform into actual accession - Scholz said.

He added that the Western Balkan countries must implement the necessary reforms, but he placed a special emphasis on resolving bilateral issues, both among the countries of the region and with EU member states.

The President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, said that his country is a leader in accession negotiations and that its ambition is to be the future newest member of the EU.

- We have set a very ambitious goal to become the 28th member state by 2028. It is an ambitious goal, but in our opinion, it is still achievable.

And we believe that by Montenegro becoming part of the EU, we can together send a very strong and clear, positive message to all others, to all other candidate countries, that enlargement is still alive - Milatović stated.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, expects a good discussion during the Summit, but added that he does not have high expectations from the meeting.

- It is good that we can respond to the untruths that some will certainly utter about Serbia, and that's it - Vučić said before the start of the Summit.

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, stated that meetings of this nature are a good opportunity to advance the European perspective of the entire region, but she stressed that Kosovo is being treated unfairly.

She added that Kosovo applied for candidate status two years ago, which the EU has never considered.

- We do not see the political will that is necessary to support us on our European path. So, when some talk about new momentum in EU enlargement for the Western Balkans, it should mean the entire Western Balkans.

And that means six countries, not one, not two, not three. Therefore, the policy of further rapprochement of these countries to the EU should include all of us and include us based on a merit-based process - Osmani said.

Among the region's leaders at the Summit are also the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, the Chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željka Cvijanović, and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski.