EU international ministers will maintain talks with their counterparts from the Western Balkans in September to “take stock” of current developments within the area because the bloc prepares for enlargement, its prime diplomat introduced on Thursday.
EU international coverage chief Josep Borrell spoke to reporters after a two-day casual assembly of EU protection and international affairs ministers in Toledo, Spain, hosted by the Spanish authorities that assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1.
By the initiative of the Spanish EU presidency, the highest diplomats will maintain a joint assembly with their counterparts from the Western Balkans “at the end of next month,” Borrell mentioned.
He defined that the assembly would goal to “take a stock of what’s happening in the Balkans,” including that “the issue of (EU) enlargement has been floating over” the discussions of EU international ministers.
His remarks got here after European Council President Michel steered on Monday that Western Balkan candidate nations and the EU ought to be prepared for enlargement by 2030.
While acknowledging that enlargement is a “merit-based process,” Borrell argued for the need to “fix the political target, a horizon” that may “give political impetus to the process.”
He additionally introduced that he’ll chair the subsequent high-level assembly of dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo on Sept. 14. in Brussels.
Launched in 2011, the EU-facilitated mechanism goals to normalize relations between the 2 Balkan nations and to discover a mutually agreeable answer to disputes inside the framework of a legally binding settlement.
While Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are nonetheless thought of “potential candidates,” Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia have acquired the standing of “candidate countries” over time.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
