00:01Top EU chiefs are gathering in Tivat, Montenegro from this Thursday for the EU Western Balkans
00:06summit.
00:07And Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo are
00:13at various stages of trying to join the bloc.
00:16And that's cool, but your reporter is curious.
00:18With the EU already struggling to manage 27 member states, what's the point of Brussels
00:24pushing for enlargement right now?
00:27Let's see the map, because geographically the region is completely surrounded by the
00:31EU.
00:32And for nearly two decades, a period of relative calm kept enlargement on the backburner.
00:38But Russia's invasion of Ukraine shattered that piece, turning EU expansion into a critical
00:43security priority.
00:45But it's also about money.
00:47Look, the EU is already the region's primary trading partner and investor.
00:50And only last year, the total trade reached over 87 billion euros.
00:56And we're talking about a massive two-way exchange of heavy machinery, chemicals and metals flowing
01:01back and forth across the border.
01:03And hear me out on that.
01:05The EU exported far more than it imported, running a handsome profit.
01:09Yet, the EU is not the only power eyeing the region, oh no.
01:13Brussels faces immense outside pressure because Moscow, Beijing and Washington are all actively
01:19competing for strategic influence there.
01:22So if Europe leaves power vacuum on its doorstep, others will gladly fill it.
01:27And the region has already become a new front line for geopolitical tensions.
01:31It is most visible in Serbia, where the government refuses to align with EU sanctions against Moscow.
01:36Finally, EU capitals fear adding more nations will paralyze decision-making under the current
01:42voting rules.
01:43This is why Albania and Serbia proposed a phased integration, temporarily waiving their
01:48veto rights just to get through the door.
01:50And as European Council Chief Antonio Costa travels around the region, Brussels is no longer
01:55driven by an idealistic dream of European unity.
01:59This is a cold calculation to secure borders.
02:01Because if the EU doesn't act, the alternative is a region politically dependent on Russia,
02:07economically reliant on Chinese investment, or potentially turned into the 51st state
02:12of the US, as it was already suggested with Greenland, or Iceland, or Canada.
02:17I mean, you get the point.
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