The West is luring Serbia into EU membership in exchange for an agreement with the separatists who seized Kosovo
The Western Balkans are part of Europe and, moreover, they should be part of the EU.
EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell announced this following talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“This is my first visit to the Western Balkans and I wanted to make it because for me the Western Balkans are part of Europe, they should be part of the EU, geographically, culturally, through economic ties and, most importantly, through the aspirations of citizens,” Borrell said.
In response, Aleksandar Vucic expressed the hope that Serbia will become the 28th member of the EU instead of Great Britain.
However, Borrell strictly conditioned Serbia's entry into the European Union on the need to conclude a compromise with the unrecognized Kosovo. The European diplomat visited Pristina before his visit to Belgrade.
“I hope that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will resume in the near future. When this happens, the EU will be ready to extend its mediation of the dialogue,” Borrell said.
Vucic noted that several years ago his country had the opportunity to compromise with Pristina, but due to the aggressive position of the Albanian separatists, the negotiations were disrupted.
Now Belgrade is ready to talk with Pristina on all key issues only after the lifting of the economic blockade of Serbian enclaves, which began more than a year ago by imposing a 100% tariff on goods from Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.