Ursula Von Der Leyen  starts Balkans tour - video Dailymotion

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00are all in different stages on their path towards membership in the bloc.

00:04Well, to talk more about this, I'm joined by Andy Hodgai,

00:08lecturer of EU law at King's College in London.

00:10Thank you very much for speaking to France24.

00:14Discussions around EU enlargement in the region stretch back 20 years,

00:18with Brussels blowing hot and cold during that period.

00:21How soon then could we realistically see one of these countries become a member of the EU?

00:26Well, there has been for quite a long time the promise that these Western Balkans will join

00:35the EU. Unfortunately, the political constraint both within the EU and the Western Balkans has

00:41been unable for us to see a clear window when these countries could join. At the moment,

00:47it seems like they are pushing for a 2030 deadline, but it's not quite sure whether

00:54this is quite realistic. What we can see, especially from her trip in the Western Balkans,

01:02she's trying to promote the 6 billion euro package, which is to transform these economies.

01:09But nevertheless, this money is contingent on the reform. So it will be interesting to see,

01:16and it will also depend primarily on how the EU is going to reform itself, because we can

01:22see that the European Union is in a discussion to reform internally in order to welcome

01:28some new members, at least in the forthcoming decade.

01:33Speaking of reforms, which of these countries, or if any, are actually carrying out what's

01:39needed to be done? What are we looking at concretely and what these countries need to show?

01:46Well, when we sort of look at it from a political perspective, you see that a number of the Western

01:52Balkans country, when it comes to Ukraine, have aligned their foreign policy, except from Serbia.

02:01But then when you sort of scratch beneath that service, they still, a number of them,

02:06have massive problems when it comes to the independence of the judiciary. We can see

02:11Albania has done a massive judicial reform, and the conditionalities around it is that these

02:18countries show a track record in fighting organized crime and corruption at the highest level. And

02:24some of them are doing quite a lot of efforts in this regard. But nevertheless, it's quite

02:31difficult to see because the EU conditions in the way that they assess independence of the judiciary

02:37sometimes is contingent to what is the track record in terms of convicting high level officials

02:44against corruption. And a number of them, particularly Albania, but we can also see

02:50in Montenegro, North Macedonia, have done well. But then we never quite know, because for a second,

02:56North Macedonia was quite ahead, but then they have a new government, and now they seem to have

03:02another dispute with one of their neighbours. So it's very difficult to assess, especially

03:10when there's not clarity over when the next enlargement might take place.

03:15And what about diplomacy? I mean, I'm thinking in particular of Serbia, which has maintained

03:20friendly ties with Russia, and has refused to sanction Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

03:27How is the EU going to handle these kinds of things?

03:30Well, the thing is, when you look at it from a political perspective, the EU is making

03:35quite a big point that all of these countries have to align with the EU in foreign policy,

03:40and in particular in Serbia. But then what we see, we also see that at times they do these

03:45background deals. So in particular, over the summer, we saw the EU, particularly with Germany,

03:50they did a deal on lithium with Serbia, and all of a sudden, this was sort of forgotten.

03:57But we have to also be clear, a number of these countries at the moment,

04:01have viewed that the EU is unlikely to expand. And what they are sort of trying to do is to

04:07have a close economic tie as possible with the EU, but without the contingency to truly reform

04:14their democracies and their judicial system, as well as their foreign policy. So that will be a

04:21very difficult thing to act, but we would need a more strong hand from a number of EU member states

04:29to actually show that there is a plan for the Western Balkans to join and put pressure on these

04:34countries to deliver in some of these conditions and make a clear question whether it's the EU or

04:42whether it would be Russia or China. Right, and what implications would

04:48these countries' integration into the EU have for immigration?

04:53So that's a really interesting question. And one of the visits that Vondelay is doing in the

05:00Western Balkans is actually to talk also about migration. Because last week, a number of,

05:06it was about 17 European countries have put forward a non-paper to address migration in

05:13the European Union, and they see the Western Balkans as key to playing a role in managing

05:19migration flow. Because we saw in 2015 when the largest wave of migration was, they passed through

05:26the Western Balkans route. Now the EU has put pressure now, especially through also the EU

05:32conditionalities to help the European Union on managing migration. We saw Italy doing a deal

05:39with Albania. We've seen France, there is a discussion to look at a similar deal. But we

05:44saw the French Prime Minister saying that the deal will not work quite legally. But if we are talking

05:50about whether this country will join the EU and then we'll have another wave of migration from

05:55these countries, I think when we look at the number, it's highly unlikely because by 2030,

06:01already half of the Western Balkan nations are living in the European Union. And at the moment,

06:06in average, it's about 42%. All right, we'll have to leave it there. But thank you very much

06:12for your analysis, Andy Hodgai, who's a lecturer of EU law at King's College.

Ursula Von Der Leyen starts Balkans tour

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended