Weber: Germany will prevent border changes in the Balkans

BERLIN, (Patria) - If an agreement on redrawing Kosovo's borders on an ethnic principle is reached, Germany will not allow it, said Bodo Weber, senior fellow at the Council for Democratization Policy from Berlin.

- In an extreme case, if a conflict arises, Berlin will halt Serbia's accession process, as well as Kosovo's, to the European Union - Weber told DW.

He pointed out that Chancellor Angela Merkel, during recent visits by officials from the region, first the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdić, and then Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, sided with the territorial integrity of the current borders.

According to Weber's opinion, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini has brought the dialogue, which had been moving towards normalizing relations within existing borders since 2013, into a crisis.

- The result of this crisis is that all red lines have been crossed, meaning that crossing red lines is not being reacted to, which speaks to the weakness of the EU - he said.

Weber is not surprised by the lack of opposition to such a solution from Washington.

- President Trump has been working since coming to power to dismantle the order that the West has painstakingly worked on together for 30 years - Weber believes.

The reactions of the EU and the US, Weber believes, have demonstrated "the weakness of the West in relation to all possible nationalists in the Balkans. They, immediately after Trump's victory, hoped to fulfill their nationalist agendas from the nineties."

- Germany, however, will remain on the side of multi-ethnic borders with strong minority rights, and that is key to this discussion - concluded Bodo Weber.