Major geopolitical challenges emphasize the need for even closer relations, the DPA agency reports excerpts from the joint declaration of 27 European Union members and five countries of the region. The future Western Balkans is within the EU, the declaration emphasizes.
The leaders of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo participated in the meeting in Brussels. The President of Serbia was not part of the EU Western Balkans summit, and the German agency states that the reasons for his decision "were not immediately clear". writes Deutsche Welle.
Tasks for both candidates and the EU
"Enlargement is a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity," the declaration states, adding: "Countries aspiring to membership must step up their reform efforts, and the Union, in parallel, must step up its internal foundations and reforms."
The DPA agency also quotes the President of the EU Council, Antonio Košta, who said that "the road ahead will not be easy - some reforms will be difficult, but they will pay off."
Montenegro is the favorite, followed by Albania
The German agency also indicates that Montenegro is the favorite to join the EU bloc. According to a recent analysis by the European Commission, the country is the furthest along in the accession process and is expected to complete accession negotiations by the end of 2026 – if it maintains the current pace of reforms.
Albania could be ready to complete the negotiations by the end of 2027, the Commission announced.
Austria has a "strong interest", Hungary criticizes
The APA agency reported the assessment of Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, who said in Brussels that his country has a "strong interest" in a stable situation in the Balkans.
"This is relevant from the point of view of security policy, and it is also economically relevant," said the Austrian chancellor. He expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved by the countries of the Western Balkans, particularly highlighting Montenegro and Albania - but he also emphasized that it is important not to forget the other candidate countries.
The Austrian agency also reports the statement of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who assessed that the behavior of the EU towards Serbia is "shameful". It is the "key country" of the region - nothing is possible without Serbia, Orban said in Brussels.
Boycott from Belgrade
Berliner Zeitung also covered the EU-Western Balkans summit - in an article published just before the summit under the title "The EU has definitely lost Serbia". In it, the newspaper's journalist Boban Dukić states that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, in an "unusually harsh gesture for the standards of European diplomacy", canceled his country's participation in the summit in Brussels.
"The boycott from Belgrade is a direct reaction to the decision made earlier in the EU General Affairs Council," writes the German newspaper. "There, Serbia was again denied the opening of the so-called Cluster 3 in the accession negotiations."
The article reports that President Vučić emphasized that Serbia implemented the necessary reforms, especially in connection with the reorganization of the voter list and the restructuring of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM).
"The Serbian leadership interprets the lack of recognition for those efforts as a political signal that ignores the achievements," Berliner Zeitung says, adding that although the European Commission has technically confirmed Serbia's readiness to start negotiations in November, the necessary consensus among the 27 member states has not been reached.
Why is Cluster 3 not opened?
The reasons for the blockade are multiple and reflect the growing mistrust of some EU capitals towards the authorities in Belgrade, the newspaper explains.
"According to the information that the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU forwarded to the Serbian authorities, Germany also declared against the opening of the cluster, and among other skeptics are the Baltic states, Sweden, Finland and neighboring countries, Croatia and Bulgaria."
"From Belgrade's perspective, that attitude is an insult," writes the newspaper from Berlin, and then conveys the opinion expressed by Slobodan Zečević, director of the Institute for European Studies in Belgrade, for Serbia's public broadcaster RTS: "Vučić expressed his dissatisfaction with the way Serbia is treated. Our country fulfills its obligations, but it is not given access to Cluster 3."
However, the situation in the mentioned EU member states is seen differently, writes the German newspaper. "The Council's conclusion unequivocally reminds Serbia that the pace of rapprochement depends on progress in two key areas: the rule of law and the normalization of relations with Kosovo. Many member states see significant shortcomings precisely in those areas."
"Serbia's reluctance to harmonize its foreign policy with EU policy and to impose sanctions on Russia is also considered a decisive factor," the article states, but also adds that "Serbia's domestic policy, which has been marked by mass protests, tensions in the media sector and accusations of the erosion of democratic institutions for more than a year, fuels doubts about the government's commitment to reforms."
A dangerous power vacuum
However, as assessed in an article in a German newspaper, "Brussels ignores a key geopolitical reality. The Western Balkans cannot be stabilized without Serbia, and certainly not against Serbia. No sustainable peace order and no economic integration are conceivable in the Balkans without the constructive participation of Belgrade. By persistently frustrating the most important country in the region, the EU is doing the exact opposite of what it claims to achieve."
In the end, Berliner Zeitung makes the following conclusion:
"Instead of exporting stability, Brussels' indecision sows mistrust and creates a dangerous power vacuum. Actors like China are deliberately exploiting this European weakness. Serbia's empty chair is therefore more than a protest by one country. It is a sign of the failure of a policy that risks losing its own backyard to geopolitical rivals."
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