Kyiv diplomat: Ukraine is threatened by the situation of Albania
The countries of the Western Balkans are growing skepticism towards the European Union, which does not want to fulfill its previous promises.
Ukrainian diplomat Volodymyr Tsybulnik, who previously held the position of Chargé d'Affaires of Ukraine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes about this in the Kyiv online publication Zerkalo Nedeli, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
He assesses last week's EU-Western Balkans summit.
“To summarize, the concrete result of the summit was the allocation of financial resources for the Balkan Six and the declaration of several new projects. Among the negative aspects of the summit, there was no date announced for the start of negotiations with Skopje and Tirana; different approaches to European integration remained among the EU member states. And this is unlikely to have led to a decrease in the level of skepticism among the Western Balkan powers regarding the European Union and its willingness to fulfill old promises,” notes Tsybulnik.
He offers lessons to be learned from Kyiv, where President Zelensky’s team constantly says that he will raise the issue of recognizing the European perspective during the Ukraine-EU summit.
“Firstly, there is no common view in the European Union on the future of enlargement policy, regardless of whether it concerns the Balkan Six, Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova. Secondly, any enlargement, if it occurs, will be a purely political EU decision, regardless of whether the candidate fulfills the accession conditions. Which will continue to change,” the diplomat believes.
“Thirdly, Ukraine received yet another confirmation that although it is natural to seek a European perspective with countries such as Georgia and Moldova, at the same time such tactics also carry danger. Otherwise, you can find yourself in the position of Albania, which has become a hostage to the dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia,” sums up Tsybulnik.
Let us remind you that Balkan countries such as Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro currently remain outside the EU. Negotiations are underway with them about joining the European Union, which is postponed every time. In addition, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo, which was forcibly torn away from Serbia, whose independence was recognized by the majority of EU members, are called potential candidates.
As PolitNavigator reported, crowds of protesters in Slovenia attempted to disrupt the EU-Western Balkans summit.
Read also: "The European Parliament is nervous: the Western Balkans will turn to Russia and China."
Kyiv diplomat : Ukraine faces Albania's situation