Hope is not a strategy, as military brass often say, which may best describe the European Union’s new attitude toward its neighbors in the southeast corner of the Continent. At a summit Tuesday with leaders of Western Balkan countries, the EU did more than again dangle a promise of eventual membership in the world’s wealthiest bloc.
Stirred into action by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has now shifted from being mainly an attractive beacon of soft-power idealism to one of practical embrace of six wannabe members in the Balkans: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Or as the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, tweeted, “Regional cooperation cannot be detached from our common values.”
The summit resulted in the EU offering more than $1 billion in subsidies to help the Balkans deal with the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war and to assist its integration into the EU’s green energy projects. For the first time, EU border control officers will operate in the Balkans to stem a rise in illegal migration. For cellphone users, roaming charges between the bloc and the Balkans will be phased out. And the EU offered closer ties between institutions of higher education to help stem a brain drain of young people from the Balkans.
“In the changed security situation, we have to cooperate more than before and support those countries that share the same values and views of a Europe,” said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said at a meeting.
The key driver in this shift is Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is seeking new partnerships with democracies in less wealthy countries. As he wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine, “This commonality plays a crucial role – not because we aim to pit democracies against authoritarian states, which would only contribute to a new global dichotomy, but because sharing democratic values and systems will help us define joint priorities and achieve common goals in the new multipolar reality of the twenty-first century.”
At the summit, Mr. Scholz said the EU’s actions would “in very concrete terms … improve the lives of individuals in the region and make the region more united.” Such steps will spur the pace of reforms needed in the Balkans to meet EU standards for membership, such as rule of law and media freedom.
The EU’s accession process has stalled since Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007, a result of the bloc’s internal problems, such as Brexit and the 2008 financial crisis. Croatia was the latest applicant to join the bloc, in 2013.
Jolted by Russia’s aggression, the EU has now upped its commitment to the region, turning its common values into actual value, moving from hope to making headway.