“Great Zones of Influence of Russia”
Berlin and Vienna are calling for EU expansion to the east
3/31/2022, 6:37 p.m
After a meeting between Austria’s head of state Nehammer and Chancellor Scholz, both are in favor of the countries of the western Balkans joining the EU quickly. Giving people in Eastern Europe a perspective is therefore of “geo-strategic interest”.
In view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Germany and Austria want to press ahead with the EU accession process for the countries of the western Balkans. “Any further delay makes the Western Balkans vulnerable,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz after a meeting with Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Berlin. “We not only need to talk about possible European perspectives, but now also to act,” emphasized Nehammer.
In the Western Balkans, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have EU accession candidate status. As “potential” candidates, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are further away from accession. Concrete accession negotiations should have started long ago with Albania and North Macedonia, but this repeatedly failed due to resistance from various EU countries.
Scholz, like his predecessor Angela Merkel, who had campaigned for EU expansion in the Western Balkans for years, called for negotiations with the two countries to finally begin. “But we also have to push ahead with institutional reforms in the EU in order to make ourselves expandable,” added Scholz.
Nehammer referred to the “large zones of influence of the Russian Federation” in the Western Balkans. Out of “geo-strategic interest” it is important “that we actually (…) get going and actually offer the people in these countries fruitful perspectives”. He will campaign for this with the “skeptics” within the EU. “The clear commitment that the Western Balkans belong to Europe must now be put into practice,” said Nehammer.