The difficult process of admission of the Balkan countries to the European Union

The strategy of the European Union is progressing slowly and with several doubts about the admission of the Balkan countries within its organization. The main intention is to remove the Balkan nations from the potential Russian influence, which would force Europe to have a further presence of Moscow on its borders; on the other hand, however, doubts continue about the existence of the conditions required by Brussels and also about the real opportunity to expand the members of the union to countries not too convinced of European principles and mainly ambitious to enter the richest market in the world and to take advantage of the rich subsidies of the European Union. The cost-benefit ratio of the admission of Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia focuses precisely on the dilemma between the need to remove from Russian influence countries where sympathy for Moscow is in any case present and high and the management of countries which might resemble the relationship with those of the Visegrad pact. With the current European rules based on unanimity of decisions, allowing the entry of new members, for whom we do not have the most complete guarantees, appears to be such a risk capable of further weakening the precarious balances that govern the Union; the case would be different where the criterion of unanimity was superseded by that of the majority, capable of making it impossible to block decisions and allow for faster governance of the supranational body and not blocked by contingent needs, also and above all political, of the individuals state subjects. For the moment, therefore, we are proceeding slowly, with aid to combat the energy crisis and other practical concessions, but of minor importance, such as the extension of telephone roaming; as well as a formal declaration in which the EU reaffirmed “its total and unequivocal commitment to the European perspective of all the countries of the Western Balkans”. However, these small progresses must be viewed with a positive outlook, because the summit candidate countries and the President of the Commission has produced an intention to face together the difficulties caused by the war in Ukraine and good prospects, albeit in the medium term, on the future of relations between the parties. The President of the European Council also used words of optimism for the entry into Europe of the Baltic countries, but with a non-immediate timing, again confirming the hypothesis of a process that is certainly not short, but, apparently, inevitable. For some countries, integration could be closer and, indeed, for Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia, the fact of being already members of the Atlantic Alliance is a preferential factor for admission to Brussels, even if I know There are still no obstacles regarding the requirements requested by the Union and on which these nations have undertaken to work to achieve the required standards. Bosnia’s path appears longer due to its constitutional instability, which has taken on a chronic nature, which constitutes a decisive reason for slowing down the admission process. The issue of Kosovo is even more complicated, because the Balkan country is currently aware that it cannot even start an admission process because it has to solve the problems of international recognition for its unilateral declaration of independence and the non-recognition of Serbia, the Federation Russia and, above all, 5 EU members (Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania), and the People’s Republic of China; in Europe the greatest obstacle is represented by Madrid, which refuses recognition by comparing the secession of Kosovo to that attempted by Catalonia. However, the most complex case is represented by Serbia, which claims to want to proceed towards admission to the Union, but, at the same time, maintain its ties with Russia, which are not only political, but also cultural and religious. With the turning point of the Ukrainian war and the attitude already maintained for a long time by Putin, of profound opposition to respect for civil and political rights and the profound contrast to dissent, Belgrade’s conduct is not acceptable for Brussels and the profound distance that has created between the Union, deeply pro-Atlantic, and Russia, currently appears as an insurmountable obstacle. Without an alignment with European foreign policy, Serbia has no chance of joining Europe, but this result would be highly unfavorable for the Union, which could even see a base for the Russian fleet rise in the center of the Adriatic Sea: something that must not absolutely happen.