EU Top Diplomat to Discuss Difficult Cooperation with Western Balkans on May 10

EU foreign minister will discuss the Western Balkans on Monday (10 May) to determine how to improve cooperation with the region, burdened by lingering nationalism, a weak economy and widespread disappointment with its fading EU membership prospects.

Ahead of the meeting, a senior EU official told reporters that "the EU can only be safe and secure if the Western Balkans are safe and resilient, thus contributing to improving the chances for the process that leads the region to the EU," the senior EU official added.

A preparatory working document, titled 'EU reinforced engagement in the Western Balkans' and seen by EURACTIV, acknowledges regions' citizen's disillusionment with the slow, stop-go enlargement process.

"We need to acknowledge that despite the steadfast commitment to EU integration, and the unprecedented levels of EU financial and economic support - including to face the COVID-19 pandemic - the people in the region are experiencing a sense of deep disappointment in the enlargement process," the working paper states.

"The widespread perception in the Western Balkans is that the prospect of accession is receding and that European aspirations are lost under a complex set of conditions and procedures that keeps the Western Balkans locked into a Sisyphean destiny," it adds, warning of nationalist rhetoric gaining momentum again.

The working paper comes after the region faced a political storm over a series of phantom documents proposing controversial border changes across the Western Balkans and a weak response from Brussels.

"In the perceived absence of an EU integration process, which would provide the broader space for the coexistence of a plurality of national identities, exclusionary nationalistic rhetoric and...