Mediterranean support for the "Open Balkan"

Writing for Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic

The last two weeks are remarkable for the strong penetration of the Italian initiative in the Balkans. First, two weeks ago, the Forum for Economic and Business Cooperation Serbia - Italy was held in Belgrade, with the massive presence of 200 Italian business people, and the beginning of April was marked by the migration of Balkan officials to Italy, where several gatherings and manifestations dedicated to the Western Balkans and the "Open Balkan". The Macedonian Prime Minister, Dimitar Kovacevski, together with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, traveled straight from Belgrade to Rome and then continued to the Wine Fair in Verona, where the winemakers of the countries of the "Open Balkan" had their presentation, and the Summit of the initiative "Open Balkan", the first to be held abroad, outside the participating countries. The day after that, they were joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of other Balkan countries who gathered at a meeting of Western Balkan Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, during his stay in Belgrade two weeks ago, which was his second visit in four months, presented Italy's new approach, which explained Italy's intense and somewhat sudden engagement with the Balkans.

At the time, he said that Italy supported the accession of the Western Balkans to the European Union and considered it a "strategically important issue". Tajani outlined the strategic character of the Balkans for the Italian government as the decision of "the new Italian government to make the policy towards the Balkans a strategic priority". "Everything we do is part of the overall strategy that aims to increase Italy's presence in this part of Europe and to ensure that the countries of the Balkans, starting with Serbia, become future members of the European Union. We support Serbia as a candidate country and we want the Balkans to become an integral part of the European Union as soon as possible," Tajani said. The Ukrainian conflict will not hinder the entry of the Balkan states into the European Union. On Monday, April 3, at the press conference after the session of the ministerial meeting on the Western Balkans, which was attended by the ministers of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo, he concluded that "the future of Europe is being decided in the Balkans".

According to Tajani, the Balkan region was a priority in the Italian leadership's policy. "We are working to speed up the process, the situation in Ukraine cannot hinder the EU enlargement process," the minister said.

He promised that Italy would do everything to enable the fastest possible passage of the Balkan countries - candidates to the European Union. Tajani admitted that there had been mistakes by the EU in the process of admission of the Balkan countries, including Serbia. "There was a delay on the European side, now we have to catch up because the future of Europe is decided in the Western Balkans," he said.

From such a strongly established framework, it is obvious that appropriate practical steps can and must be followed that will be adequate to the new importance given to the Balkan countries. Italy strengthened the Balkan direction of its foreign policy with the arrival of the new government of Giorgia Meloni, and the first step in that direction was direct participation in calming the tension between Belgrade and Pristina regarding license plates. On November 23, Head of Diplomacy, Tajani, and Minister of Defense of Italy, Guido Crozetto, visited Belgrade and Pristina. "Italy is here, Italy wants to be there, because we are very interested in the region of the Western Balkans," Tajani said during their meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic. Crozetto added, "This visit of two ministers is a political sign and shows how much importance Italy attaches to Serbia."

A month later, at the national conference on the Western Balkans in Trieste, Antonio Tajani disclosed that Italy had insisted on being involved in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and thus had explained why Francesco Talo, on behalf of Italy, joined the already defined delegation consisting of Miroslav Lajcak, Gabriel Escobar, Jens Ploetner, and Emmanuel Bonne.

Today, Italy is in a similar situation as in 1917, when, after the October Revolution, Russian influence in the Balkans disappeared. Today, Italy once again has the opportunity to fill part of the void left after the limitation of Russia's ability to be present in Europe, and therefore also in the Balkans. It is not only a matter of Italy having the opportunity to replace Russia, but also achieving European goals that relate to Albania, the Kosovo issue, and Serbia at the same time. Italy is an external power, a rare one, which, for various reasons, is accepted as an objective factor by both the Serbs and Albanians.

It was an Italian minister of Foreign Affairs, Gianni de Michelis, who 30 years ago formulated the idea that, if Serbia did not become a member of the European Union, Italy would be cut off from the Balkans, not the other way around. Hence, Italy has strong motives to support the claims of Serbia and other Balkan countries for EU membership. This was confirmed by the Italian head of diplomacy.

At the same time, Italy's discreet but positive attitude towards the "Open Balkan" initiative cannot pass unnoticed, especially since the gathering in Italy took place only a week after the representatives of the new Balkan initiative - North Macedonia - met in Skopje, Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro, who especially emphasized that it was a regional gathering in accordance with EU policy. Even in the very name of the initiative it is stated that it was "100 percent in line with EU policy. After the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine, alignment with the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, but even more broadly with the positions and values of the democratic world, turned into one of the most important priorities of the countries that strive for EU membership, but also as a clear message of where these countries belong." the participants of this meeting said.

This initiative was greeted with suspicion because it included the unrecognized Kosovo, the other three countries are members of NATO, but all four form the framework in which "Greater Albania" appears. If the form of the "Albanian world" were to be sought, then this initiative would be quite suitable for that.

On the one hand, this is a message to Serbia, which did not impose sanctions on Russia, and on the other hand, it is a message to the "Open Balkan" initiative. The European institutions and the European Parliament perceive the "Open Balkan" as a "foreign and unnecessary body" on European soil, and the European Parliament in its resolutions has expressly condemned the actions of the "Open Balkan". The European Parliament rapporteur for the Balkans, Viola von Cramon, once assessed the "Open Balkan" initiative as "dangerous" and stated that it was an attempt to establish a "parallel structure" for regional cooperation that was not included and "is not based on the norms or standards of the European Union".

Italian officials were cautious and did not use the term "Open Balkan" too much in public communication, but the very fact that several events and meetings with clear features of "Open Balkan" are being held in Italy over the course of two days indicates that Italy not only does not mind, but she still participates in all that. That change, one would say, did not come about so spontaneously.

The American administration, it seems, has decided to partially satisfy Belgrade and respond positively to the remarks that the US started, initiated, accepted, and then completely forgot about the "Open Balkan" with the new administration, by strengthening the "Mediterranean support" of the entire Balkans and more strongly to include Italy and Greece in the Balkan affairs. Both countries enjoy the trust of Belgrade, and at the same time, they have a very strong influence on Albania and Kosovo. At an important stage when Serbia and Pristina are expected to show maximum cooperation, the "good services" of trusted partners are not only welcome but can also play a key role. It is not the first time that the US relies on Greece and Italy in completing Balkan affairs. After the signing of the Dayton Agreement, Italy and Greece emerged as countries that financially strengthened it by buying “Telekom Srbija” for one billion dollars. This enabled Serbia, exhausted by long-term sanctions, to improve its finances in a short time.

A similar role, but much more in the political sense, is played by Italy and Greece today. Only a week after the Italian minister, Greek President, Katerina Sakellaropoulou was in Belgrade. She stated that the position of her country, which had not recognized the independence of Kosovo, remained the same.

"At the same time, Greece, in addition to its well-known position on the status of Kosovo and faithful to its policy in the Western Balkans, follows a pragmatic and constructive approach in relation to Kosovo, which aims to strengthen stability and security, as well as an overall move towards EU integration of the entire region which is our strategic goal," Sakellaropoulou said.

The head of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Rome planned to hold a series of meetings and other events with representatives of the Balkan states until the end of 2023.

Among other things, according to Tajani, he intended to hold a meeting similar to yesterday's by the end of the year in order to assess the progress in the process of preparing the planned integration of the Balkan countries into the EU.

"We will organize another similar summit by the end of the year to see what progress has been made between Europe and the candidate countries in achieving the full participation of these countries in the EU," Tajani said.

In addition to supporting the faster entry of the Balkan countries into the European Union, the role in maintaining the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, until the final acceptance of the Franco-German plan, is the natural role of Italy, which has historically participated in the interaction with the Albanian population for centuries, more than any other European country. At the ministerial meeting of the countries of the Western Balkans, which followed the day after the gathering of the "Open Balkan", they discussed security in the Balkans and regional stability, as well as strengthening the Ohrid agreement between Belgrade and Pristina. The Italian head of diplomacy noted that Italy was acting on behalf of the EU and that he considered the European plan for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina to be a significant step in the dialogue between the two sides. "We are trying not to make the situation worse, but to improve it," the head of Italian diplomacy concluded.

Greece and Italy, of course, are the key countries of NATO's southern wing, so it is not unexpected that they are given the highest responsibility for maintaining the security of the Western Balkans.