Hoti: The EU definitely needs a new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans

Afrim Hoti, a professor of law and international relations at the University of Pristina, has assessed that the EU definitely needs a new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans, one that would accelerate the process rather than impose bureaucratic obstacles on their respective paths to integration.

Commenting on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement at the European Political Community Summit in Budapest, where Vucic stated that the EU should change its strategy for the entire Western Balkans, Hoti said he fully agrees that a new strategy is needed to speed up the process.

“I don’t know exactly what the Serbian president meant by enlargement, but we definitely need a new strategy. And this has been the demand of all Western Balkan leaders over the last decade. We need a new strategy because the Western Balkans is the only territory in Europe that is not integrated into the Union. The events of the past two to three years between Ukraine and Russia clearly show the necessity of EU enlargement. How this should work remains to be seen, but I fully agree that we need a new strategy that will accelerate the integration process for the Western Balkan countries or, as it is now referred to, the six Western Balkan countries joining the EU,” Hoti said to Kosovo Online.

He sees the accession of the Western Balkans as possible if bureaucratic barriers are removed but warns against expecting it to be a “package deal” in which all the region’s countries join the EU simultaneously.

“Acceleration of the process, not bureaucratic obstacles, is needed in the respective integration paths of the Western Balkan countries. Of course, we cannot assume that the Western Balkans must be integrated as a package, as this depends on the progress each country makes on its integration path. But first, the process needs to be accelerated and simplified for each country to enable their inclusion,” Hoti stated.

He recalled that the EU enlargement process has not always been the result of meeting predefined criteria for candidate countries.

“We must keep in mind that all waves of integration, all waves of enlargement except the one in 1995, were not the result of meeting criteria. More than fulfilling criteria, it was a response to crises, meaning that each crisis occurring in Europe led to a new strategy of integrating certain countries into the EU. Now it is the Western Balkans' turn for integration, and I believe that the idea of EU integration will be completed with this step,” Hoti concluded.