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MEP and Kosovo’s rapporteur for the European Parliament, Viola von Cramon, said that Brussels should send positive signals for the membership of the Western Balkan countries on the eve of this week’s decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and the other two countries. former Soviet.
During a visit to Sarajevo on June 19, the German MP of the “Greens” said that the immediate opening of negotiations for Albania and Northern Macedonia would help maintain credibility in the region.
The comments come after Slovenia, an EU member state, called for accelerated admission of aspiring members to the Western Balkans and the granting of candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is facing secessionist efforts from ethnic Serb leaders who are allies. close to Moscow.
“We, the European parliamentarians, always say that if Moldova and Ukraine get the candidate status, then we have to give something to the countries of the Western Balkans to show them that we are credible and that hope has not been lost.” , – declared von Cramon.
Asked by reporters about specific decisions the EU should take, she cited the opening of negotiations with northern Macedonia and Albania, the granting of candidate status to Bosnia, and visa liberalization for Kosovo.
In a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, Slovenian President Borut Pahor on 16 June said that the Western Balkan countries seemed to be moving further away from the EU, despite past promises, while Ukraine and Moldova were being pursued rapidly. since the beginning of the Russian occupation of Ukraine on 24 February.
Pahor called Bosnia a threat to nationalism and instability – citing Bosnian Serb separatism with tacit Russian support – and said it was “absolutely necessary that Bosnia and Herzegovina be given unconditional EU candidate status”.
The leaders of the 27 EU member states will consider the applications of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia this week at the summit on June 23rd and 24th.
“The purpose of the Slovenian proposal that suggests the granting of EU candidate status without further delay for [Bosnjën] is to send an immediate positive signal to [Bosnjën] and the whole region of the Western Balkans, ”Pahor’s proposal reads.
Such a signal for [Bosnjën]the opening of membership negotiations with northern Macedonia and Albania, as well as visa liberalization for Kosovo would reconfirm the EU’s commitment to the Western Balkans.
Von Cramon-Taubadel was in Sarajevo with an EU delegation to learn more about the situation in Bosnia, which is still governed by an ethnic-based agreement in 1995 that ended years of intense fighting in Bosnia after the break-up of Yugoslavia./REL
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