Accession dispute – The Balkans and the EU – a Gordian knot

Air Serbia still flies to Russia, but still not to Kosovo. If you want to go from Belgrade to Pristina, you have to pass through Macedonia. Serbia is the only European country that has not imposed sanctions. Putin is the most popular foreign politician. Two-thirds of the war in Ukraine is on Russia’s side, according to a study. When the war broke out, a newspaper in Belgrade even made the headline: “Ukraine has attacked Russia”.

But Serbia wants to join the EU. The NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999 has burned itself into the pro-Russian DNA of Serbian nationalism.

Little America without recording
Change of scenery, Pristina, capital of the former southern Serbian Albanian province, half the size of Lower Austria. If Serbia is Little Russia, Kosovo is Little America. How will the two ever come together on a common path to the EU, without which there is no access? (Kosovo has a Kosovar from Germany as its foreign minister.)

States are stuck in the waiting room
Serbia and Kosovo; they tease each other wherever they can – but this isn’t the only hot spot among the Balkan states, which have now been stuck in the EU’s waiting room for 19 (!) years; Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia with candidate status. The accession negotiations with Serbia had started more than badly, those with Macedonia are being blocked by EU(!) Member State Bulgaria in the dispute over mutual minority issues.

A similar blockade puts Croatia in the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina if the EU wants to start accession negotiations with this state. One condition is that Sarajevo must first change the electoral law so that the Hercegovina Croats are finally recognized as the third state-forming nation in Bosnia.

Putin’s best man in the Balkans
The supreme oligarch of the Republic of Srpska, the Serbian part of Bosnia, shoots the bird of the Balkan feud: Milorad Dodik is Putin’s best man in the Balkans. The mounting threats from the scheming national populist to blow up Bosnia through secession are now becoming too much even for the other national populist, Serbian President Alexander Vučić.

Dodik’s hugs disrupt his seesaw policy between Brussels, Moscow and Beijing. “Too much history to digest,” said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who compared the suffering in the Balkans to that of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Ominous rumors are circulating that Putin plans to roll into Europe via the Balkans at the end of the summer with an initiative for a brotherhood of Slavic Orthodox states. That would mean putting your foot in Europe without firing a single shot.

Schallenberg’s two-front strategy
Foreign Minister Schallenberg fears the Balkans will drift away if left forgotten in the EU’s waiting room. To this end, he has developed a two-sided strategy: pushing for reforms in the Balkans (“The path to the EU can be a one way street”) and, on the other, convincing the EU of new forms, namely partial membership. This means that if, in the course of the accession negotiations, sufficient EU maturity has been reached in certain areas, one should go straight into practice without waiting for full membership.

Schallenberg before the EU’s “Ukraine Summit”: “The Balkans are our neighbours. Like Ukraine, it affects our security. If Europe does not act quickly, it will become a breeding ground that, certainly in the current situation, will bring new crises to Europe The Balkans are not a backyard, they are the courtyard of the EU.”

“Serbia wants to stay on European path”
Serbian Foreign Minister Selaković confirmed in conversation with Schallenberg: “Serbia wants to stay on the European path. There is no alternative. 67 percent of our commercial transactions take place with the EU. Austria is the third largest investor. These companies provide 20,400 jobs, 300,000 Serbs live in Austria, 100,000 of whom are of Serbian nationality.” Sanctions: “We have condemned the aggressive war in the UN. We respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine – including Bosnia, for that matter.”

“Who knows where else Moscow will set its sights?”
Change of scenery, Kosovo: a dynamic country on the move, with a lot of money flowing into it – official and illegal; huge construction activity and lots of money laundering gas stations. The population explosion makes Kosovo the youngest country in Europe in all respects. Entrepreneurial talent distinguishes the Albanians, who call themselves Skipetars, in all three countries: Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia.

The conclusion of his recent trip to the Balkans led the foreign minister to the Austrian army contingent of the NATO-led KFOR protection force. Schallenberg told the soldiers about a “tectonic earthquake in Europe”: “I am afraid that we will need not less, but soon more KFOR. Who knows where else Moscow will turn its sights.”