EU leaders to reassure Balkans 6 as membership hopes stall
ABC News
European Union leaders are gathering to reassure six countries in the Balkans that they could join the trading bloc one day
BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia -- European Union leaders are gathering Wednesday to reassure six countries in the Balkans region that they could join the trading bloc one day if they meet its standards, but the presidents and prime ministers are unlikely to give any signal about when the nations might advance in their quests.
Despite years of talk about the “European perspective” of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, the EU has seen its progress on admitting them stall. Albania and North Macedonia have met the criteria to start talks, but all 27 countries must agree unanimously for the process to move forward.
The leaders are meeting at Brdo Castle, a Renaissance-style fortified palace in Slovenia that was used by the late Yugoslavia President Josip Broz Tito as a summer residence. Slovenia, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, backs its Balkans neighbors’ EU membership hopes.
The EU leaders will reaffirm a “commitment to the enlargement process” in general, but progress will be “based upon credible reforms by partners, fair and rigorous conditionality and the principle of own merits,” according to a draft of the statement they are set to issue later, seen by The Associated Press.
