Four days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union. In June last year, the EU agreed to start membership negotiations and in 2025 deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Olha Stefanishyna, announced a roadmap to Ukraine’s accession.
However, two countries may enter the fold before Ukraine. Expanding to the Western Balkans has once again become one of the EU’s priorities, European Council President António Costa has revealed. As he began a tour of the region on Tuesday (May 13), Mr Costa said that Europe’s future stability and prosperity depend on the enlargement of the bloc. Mr Costa has promised the two countries that the EU is dedicated to relaunching their accession process, which has recently stalled, in part due to the hesitation of member states.
The Southeast European countries of Albania and Montenegro could join the EU before others, Mr Costa told Euronews.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sped up the accession process for Ukraine and Moldova, so it is not fair to the countries of the Western Balkans to be overtaken by Ukraine and Moldova, and this will push them to move faster with reforms,” he explained.
During his diplomatic tour of the Western Balkans, Mr Costa will visit six countries in the region – first Serbia, then Bosnia-Herzegovina, before meeting both Montenegro and Kosovo’s heads of state and government on Wednesday (May 14). He will then visit North Macedonia and Albania, where he will take part in the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Tirana on Friday.
“On the European Council side, there is a broad political consensus that enlargement is the most important geopolitical investment that can be made for the stability, peace and prosperity of the whole of Europe, including the countries of the Western Balkans,” said the European Council President.
“The countries of the EU and the Western Balkans share a common vision, since they belong to the European family,” he continued. “This is why we need to work so that they can formally join this family, within the European Union.”
European institutions have often pointed to 2030 as the target date for the first accessions to the EU, notably those of Albania, Montenegro and Serbia. However, Brussels is only talking about Albania and Montenegro. According to several opinion polls, a majority of Serbs have lost interest in the EU because of the bloc’s hesitation over expansion.
“I don’t have a fixed date […] Accession is a process based on merit. If the countries carry out the reforms, they could even join before 2030,” said Mr Costa.
“I know of no better incentive to overcome the conflicts that are still open than this perhaps unique opportunity, which is membership of the European Union. It is the best condition to offer the countries of the Western Balkans, an opportunity for prosperity that they would be hard pressed to find elsewhere,” he concluded.