Despite the efforts of the V4 nations to speed up the EU accession process for countries of the Western Balkans, the overriding message at a meeting of the V4-plus Spain and Belgium – members of the future EU trio presidency – on Tuesday was “wait and see”.
Yves Leterme, Belgium’s foreign minister, said at a news conference that it would be unwise to set any concrete accession date for EU hopefuls from the Western Balkan region and his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Balazs likened the process to a tennis match in contrast to a soccer match – in which the point is not to look at the clock but to play the set.
The foreign ministers at the meeting gave warning to the hopefuls that there would only be any hope of speeding the process up if they were to properly fulfil the conditions set down in their pre-accession stability and association agreements.
The Visegrad Four countries – Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – pledged at the same time to help those Western Balkan countries in seeing to their EU preparations effectively.
“European and NATO integration was of key importance in the transformation of Central European countries,” said a statement issued following the meeting. “The V4 countries want to see the same stability and prosperity fostered by the process of integration in the Western Balkan region.”
Stability in the Western Balkans is also crucial for the wider region, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak told journalists after the meeting.
Bosnia-Herzegovina can only join the EU as a unit, said the joint statement. Balazs said the message here to Bosnian leaders was: they should continue to strengthen joint state institutions.
The statement noted “significant progress” in cooperating to bring to justice war criminals in Serbia and the area of former Yugoslavia. Support has been given to the EU’s Kosovo justice and police mission EULEX, it said.
