By Kerin Hope in Athens
George Papandreou, Greek foreign minister, has called for the European Union to make a firm commitment at next month’s summit of EU leaders in Thessaloniki to speed the accession of the five west Balkan countries.
Making the keynote speech at a World Economic Forum conference on the region, he said some EU members were sauuering from “enlargement fatigue” and wanted to slow down the process.
“Some member states have been saying we need to see more reforms, that perhaps these countries aren’t ready. But we need to give them a new vision and accelerate progress towards membership,” Mr Papandreou said. The conference brought together political leaders from Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania. Together with Bosnia-Herzogovuna, these countries aspire to EU membership but face problems with maintaining political stability, carrying out structural reforms and fighting organised crime.
While holding the EU’s rotating presidency, Greece is pushing for the west Balkan countries current aid based relationship with the Union to be upgraded to a pre-accession strategy, similar to that followed by the 10 countries joining the EU next year. But Athens has stopped short of suggesting a date for membership.
Mr Papandreou said the Balkans had made significant progress towards sustainable development but that reforms should be stepped up.
“The rule of law isn’t as strong as it should be and organised crime is one important issue that has to be addressed,” he said.
The European Commission has proposed measures to deepen the stabilisation and association process launched this year with Albania, and already completed with Croatia and Macedonia –although agreements signed with both countries have not yet taken effect because ratification has been delayed by several EU member states.
The measures would include “twinning” – sending officials from EU states to advise Balkan governments on political, economic, social and judicial reform- as well as providing technical assistance to bring legislation in line with Union requirements.
Greece is seeking an extra €300m ($355m, 217 l.m) yearly in EU financial assistance for the five countries between 2004 and 2006 for projects that would promote regional cohesion in trade, transport and energy. The funds would be added to the EU allocation of €4.6 bn for the region.
With Romania and Bulgaria due to join the EU in 2007, the west Balkan countries are concerned they will become increasingly isolated from the rest of the region.
Greece is backing requests by governments to liberalise the EU visa regime to make travel easier for the 20m people living in the west Balkan countries, where average unemployment is more than 30 per cent.
(From Financial Times 26/05/03)