Under Spain’s EU Presidency, the Issue of the Western Balkans Will Be Sidelined

King Felipe VI of Spain (C) poses for a group photo with Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez (C-L), European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen (C-R), and other attendees at a reception after the meeting of the College of EU Commissioners in Madrid, Spain, 03 July 2023. EPA-EFE/Kiko Huesca Spanish agenda: low expectations, low disappointments

As per the presidency's announced priorities, Spain will put a special focus on the social, green and geostrategic pillars of EU policymaking. An enhancement of the EU's strategic autonomy, featuring issues of reindustrialisation and diversification of raw resource providers, will go hand in hand with a boost in trade relations with Latin America and the Caribbean - the only geographical region mentioned explicitly in Spain's programme.

While mention of EU enlargement does appear once in the 18-month programme of the current presidential 'trio'- consisting of Spain, Belgium and Hungary - where it is claimed it will be "taken forward in accordance with the new [2020] methodology", it is not mentioned as part of the Spanish task list per se. This should not be interpreted as disdain, let alone aversion, to the issue, but rather as adherence to Madrid's long-established foreign policy orientations.

Spain's approach towards enlargement - and towards the Western Balkans in particular - traditionally follows that of the EU and its major member states, and has rarely distanced itself from the overall straightforward line dictated by Brussels. As a geographically distant country with a rather low strategic interest in the region, Spain has kept a modest profile vis-à-vis the Western Balkans. It is, therefore, not surprising that Madrid shows a higher predilection for Latin America, for obvious historical,...