The meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the European Union member states began in Brussels today, and the Western Balkans is also on the agenda. As announced, the focus of this item on the agenda will be the relations between Serbia and Kosovo and the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
As the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said before the meeting, he will inform the heads of diplomacy of the EU member states about the deadlock in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia and the meetings he had in Paris with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Bogdan Aurescu, said that the country will continue to support the expansion of the EU to the Western Balkans and BiH, and he also stressed that the tensions that have arisen in the northern part of Kosovo should be stopped.
He assessed that the EU-Western Balkans summit, which will be held on December 6 in Tirana, will be very significant for the countries of the Western Balkans, supporting the EU aid package for energy security that is being prepared for the countries of the Western Balkans and amounts to one billion euros.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman also expressed satisfaction with the upcoming EU-Western Balkans summit and underlined that all Western Balkan countries are expected to harmonize their foreign policies with the EU’s foreign policy and introduce sanctions against Russia.
“It is necessary to promote regional stability and security and good neighborly relations, and we expect the political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to form governments at all levels as soon as possible and to start work on constitutional reforms such as reforms of the Election Law, as well as on other reforms in order to get candidate status, which Croatia strongly supports,” Grlić Radman added.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Tanja Fajon, on the eve of the meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the EU countries, also announced that she would request stabilization in Kosovo and Montenegro, but also continue to advocate that BiH be granted candidate status, in which Slovenia played a major role, demanding that the EU grant a candidate status to BiH by the end of this year.
As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto said, geopolitics is key at this moment and there are noticeable problems in BiH and Montenegro in terms of political turbulence, but also the issue of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and because of all this it is necessary to continue providing support to the countries of the Western Balkans.
