Brussels to extend EU single market benefits to western Balkans

Brussels has pledged to extend some of the benefits of the EU’s single market to the western Balkans and boost funding as the region confronts a fresh bout of instability.

Countries in the western Balkans that are still waiting to join the EU could be integrated into the bloc’s digital single market in areas such as ecommerce or cyber security and benefit from facilitated trade in goods and payments, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Pre-accession funding should also be boosted to help address a “dire need” for investment, she added, without giving figures.

“Our shared goal is to speed up their journey towards the European Union,” von der Leyen told a conference in Bratislava on Wednesday. “It is not enough to say that the door is open. We must also take responsibility to bring the aspiring members of our Union much closer to us.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has concentrated minds in the EU on the risks of neglecting countries that could fall under Moscow’s influence, with some capitals pushing for renewed momentum towards accession in the Balkans.

Enlargement, however, has stalled since the union admitted Croatia a decade ago. Kosovo, whose independence is yet to be recognised by Serbia and a handful of EU states, is farthest away as it still awaits to be granted candidate status; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and North Macedonia have yet to start membership talks; and Serbia and Montenegro have started negotiations but they are also far from joining the bloc.

The US on Tuesday outlined punitive actions against Kosovo for stoking ethnic tensions that led to Nato peacekeepers and Serb protesters being injured in the worst clashes taking place in the Balkan country this year.

Kosovo’s prime minister Albin Kurti struck a defiant tone on Wednesday, saying that the US measures were misguided and that his government stood by the recently elected ethnic Albanian mayors in the northern part of his country who have been at the heart of the recent flare-up with the majority Serb population in the area.

“Those who are talking sanctions should perhaps think broader or deeper,” Kurti said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Serbia is not putting sanctions to the Russian Federation and is financing this fascist militia in the northern part of my country, so perhaps they should [receive] sanctions.”

He described the US as the “key friend, ally and partner” of Kosovo, adding that he was in daily contact with the American ambassador in Pristina. “I admit and acknowledge that in terms of approaches taken we have had a slight difference but honestly I do not feel that any kind of sanctions [on] Kosovo . . . is the right measure,” he said.

Kurti said he would be ready to hold a meeting with Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić if it was mediated by Brussels. He also welcomed the deployment of more Nato troops to quell the violence, saying: “I’ve been calling for more Nato soldiers since last year.”

Miroslav Lajčák, the EU’s special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, said he understood Kurti’s rationale of ensuring that elected officials were able to take office, “but at the same time I think that more empathy and understanding is needed”.

Lajčák urged “both parties to step back”, adding that Kosovo police should be withdrawn from the municipal buildings — a measure that had led to violent clashes in recent days that resulted in 30 Nato peacekeepers and more than 50 Serb protesters being injured.

The Brussels funding offer to its western Balkan partners was immediately welcomed by leaders from the region.

“The EU should open a new path of co-operation in terms of funding because otherwise there is no future in terms of security and stability for the Balkans and if the Balkans cough, for the European Union it’s pneumonia,” Albanian prime minister Edi Rama told the Globsec conference in Bratislava.

He stressed that receiving more EU money did not mean the six countries of the western Balkans would join the EU faster. “We are not running to become members of the European Union, I am part of this school of thought that thinks that if it doesn’t work with 27, how will it work with 33,” Rama said. “But we have to enter into a new relation, so let’s do so.”

North Macedonia’s prime minister Dimitar Kovačevski described von der Leyen as “a great friend of our countries”, but he insisted that Brussels should have contributed earlier to reducing the wealth gap between his region and the EU, particularly after seeing the benefits of including mostly former communist states in 2004.

“Why have the countries in south-eastern Europe and eastern Europe improved economically? For one reason only, because they became members of the European Union,” he said.

Kosovo’s Kurti said more EU money was “definitely good news”, while insisting that renewed violence in his country should not derail its path towards EU membership. “In my conviction, the EU is our destiny that we should embrace,” he said.