The threat of a boycott still hovered the day before the summit on the Western Balkans from the main interested parties. The Prime Ministers of Albania, Edi Rama, and North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski, accompanied by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic have ultimately decided to go to Brussels this Thursday, June 23, alongside the other leaders of the countries of the former Yugoslavia which have been knocking at the door of the European Union for a very long time. Without illusions.
Edi Rama summarized, in a tweet published on Wednesday June 22, the resentment that animates them: “It looks like another ‘No, sorry!’ be what we are going to hear at the end! The whole Union kidnapped by Bulgaria, it’s not a good sight to watch! What are we doing here? ! »
This summit was to mark “EU re-engagement and re-investment in the Western Balkan region” as a source at the Élysée recalled. However, it risks ending in a dead end, even if those around the president still want to believe in a solution in the last days of the French presidency of the Council of the EU.
“Bulgaria has exorbitant demands”
Because Bulgaria is blocking accession negotiations with North Macedonia. However, the fall of the minority government of Kiril Petkov on the evening of June 22 leaves little hope for a successful outcome of the dispute. Since coming to power last December, the pro-European reformer has never had a free hand to put an end to Bulgarian identity claims.
“Bulgaria has exorbitant demands, in terms of history, but also of language, considering Macedonian as a Bulgarian dialect, and demanding that the Bulgarian minority be registered as a constituent people in the Macedonian Constitution”, summarizes Goran Sekulovski, specialist in Yugoslavian space at Inalco. “The EU was unable to break the Bulgarian lock, hence the reproach made to it for allowing itself to be phagocytosed by Bulgaria”, he adds. However, the fall of the Prime Minister, which opens a great period of uncertainty, against a backdrop of systemic political instability in Sofia, raises fears of a new stalemate.
“All the Balkan countries feel marginalized”
“Yet no country has made as many efforts and sacrifices as North Macedonia in its process of democratization and of settling disputes with its neighbours”, notes Florent Marciacq, co-director of the Balkan Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. “Resentment wins over all the Balkan countries which feel marginalized, while, moreover, Ukraine absorbs all the diplomatic capital”, continues the researcher.
It is to believe that a curse has fallen on North Macedonia, a country which has officially applied for membership since 2005 and which sees its road to integration still blocked. For twenty years, Skopje has suffered the wrath of Greece, which demanded that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia change its name to distinguish it from the Greek region and the illustrious ancient kingdom.
Albania bears the brunt of this blockage
As soon as this historic dispute was settled in 2018, France took over the opposition to enlargement in 2019. The horizon finally seemed clear in the spring of 2020, when European leaders agreed on a new membership methodology and gave the green light for the opening of negotiations with Skopje and with Albania. Since then, Bulgaria has waved its veto.
Albania bears the brunt of this blockage. European leaders have associated the two countries in their march towards membership, even though this is in theory based on merit and the progress of the required reforms. As for the lifting of visas for Kosovo, recommended for years, the question, although technically settled, is not on the menu of the summit.
Bosnia and Herzegovina remains outside the scope of membership. “Now you have to be a candidate for the candidacy, the EU is asking him for a fourteen-point reform plan, which is impossible to implement, comments Florent Marciacq. The bitterness is immense, the Bosnians say to themselves that their war was useless, that they would need a new war to advance towards the EU. »