Western Balkans

Last Saturday at Brdo (Slovenia), the 27 European Union foreign ministers clearly reaffirmed that the future of the Western Balkans lies within the European Union; this was a wholly necessary message following Kosovo’s declaration of independence, just before Bucharest’s NATO summit this week and ahead of Serbia’s general election in May.

What is noteworthy is that Serbia’s foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, and Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, were both in Brdo. The European Union acknowledged in February that the decision whether or not to recognize Kosovo had been left to individual member States, but this does not change the common commitment to integrate Kosovo fully into the EU’s cooperation initiatives in the region, of which it is a part.

We are revealing no secret by saying that Serbia was at the heart of the discussions in Brdo. As one of our colleagues said on Saturday, we all want for Serbia what Slovenia – once also a republic in the former Yugoslavia, and today holding the EU presidency – has achieved. The Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia was initialled last November and now awaits signature. Unquestionably, Serbia has to meet her international moral obligations before hoping to join the EU family. We understand that on the eve of the election, Serbia is still uncertain about her future and has doubts about Europe. Both the current and future EU presidencies are therefore convinced that we must find innovative ways of giving Serbia’s pro-European forces the boost they need so much without sacrificing the values on which the EU is based. Like Kosovo, Serbia is in very many respects also a unique case.

For this reason, as envisaged in Brdo, we want to demonstrate the European Union’s friendship towards the people of Serbia and propose that the European Union issue Serbian nationals, free of charge, visas to visit member States.

However, we are calling on Serbia in the strongest terms to respect her previous commitments and refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric and provocative activities which might endanger security in the region. We fully respect the feelings of our Serbian friends, but good regional cooperation is essential for countries aspiring to EU membership and this also applies to Serbia. And the "rule of law" and EUSR (EU Special Representative) missions to Kosovo reflect the EU’s commitment to Kosovo. One cannot at the same time aspire to join the EU and refuse to talk to the members of the missions that are there primarily to protect the Kosovo Serbs. What is more, Serbia should not let the Kosovo issue dictate her relationship with the EU.

Pursuit of the project to liberalize visas for nationals of all the region’s countries by rapidly completing the roadmaps and creating realistic and concrete conditions which, if met, would open the way to visa-free travel, is one measure which should be warmly welcomed by all the inhabitants of the Balkans. We must not ignore the frustrations resulting from the paradox that the countries of the former Yugoslavia had already enjoyed visa-free travel before 1990.

While, for very obvious reasons, we have recently been focusing our attention on Serbia and Kosovo, we must not forget the rest of the region. We must recognize the progress made recently by Montenegro and Albania. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement is within our reach, provided that the police reform is implemented; in the next few days, the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina will have another opportunity to be bold and courageous and move forward on this matter.

Finally, as regards the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, we have been encouraged by the progress made in the past few days on the name issue and sincerely hope that a mutually-acceptable solution will be found to allow her to join NATO.

This is where the future of the country and its people lies and it has the real potential to make the country grow stronger and the region more stable./.