BELGRADE: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday starts a tour of six Balkan nations aspiring to join the bloc amid signs that enlargement is back on the Brussels agenda.
Von der Leyen’s fourth visit to the region is an “important signal” that European Union enlargement is being discussed again, Heather Grabbe, an expert at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told AFP.
“The fact that she is going early in the second term and going frequently is a strong political signal of commitment and interest,” Grabbe said.
Her predecessor as European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on becoming head of the EU executive that there would be no enlargement during his term, Grabbe underlined.
For Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, von der Leyen’s visit is an opportunity to show that they are serious about the reforms needed to hope to join the 27-nation bloc.
EU’s enlargement to the region of slightly less than 18 million people is a 20-year-old debate.
In some countries public support for EU membership and the political will to implement reforms fell during that period. But the mood changed with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, that “re-energised the whole process,” Grabbe said.
“The geopolitical urgency around Ukraine and Moldova ... that has helped them along,” she said referring to the Balkan EU hopefuls.
Von der Leyen’s four-day tour, that starts in Albania, will have a “rather optimistic tone since another mechanism has been launched to move the entire region closer to the EU,” said Jelica Minic, vice president of the European Movement in Serbia, an NGO.
She was referring to the bloc’s growth plan for the Western Balkans adopted in November 2023.
To counter the economic influence of China and Russia in the region, the EU has proposed a six billion euro ($6.5 billion) initiative aimed at doubling the region’s economic capacity.
The plan is based on integration with EU’s single market, a regional common market, acceleration of reforms and increased financial assistance.
But payments will be strictly linked to reforms, notably alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy.
Thus, during von der Leyen’s visit the diplomatic alignment that EU candidates must carry out will be likely discussed, notably in Serbia.
Serbia has maintained friendly ties with Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and refused to impose sanctions.
President Aleksandar Vucic thanked Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, in phone talks on Sunday, for ensuring that Serbia will have enough natural gas this winter.
“There is an interest in what she (von der Leyen) will be saying and doing in Serbia,” said Lukas Macek, a researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute.
“Because she was sometimes criticized, like other EU leaders ... that maybe they are not clear enough in telling Vucic, what are the limits, what the EU can accept in terms on internal politics developments in terms of illiberal tendencies.”
Vucic, who has maintained a delicate diplomatic balance between East and West, on Monday declined Putin’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit this week, citing important visits to Serbia as the reason.
Another hot issue that could come up during von der Leyen’s visit is the enlargement timetable, with some countries having been candidates for two decades.
Montenegro is the most advanced on the EU path, but Macek said he did not believe the tiny country’s full membership was possible before 2030.
“It is possible for some countries like Montenegro, and maybe others, to make sure that by the end of the commission’s mandate, negotiations are closed.”
EU chief due in Balkans to discuss enlargement
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EU chief due in Balkans to discuss enlargement
- Von der Leyen’s fourth visit to the region is an “important signal” that European Union enlargement is being discussed again, Heather Grabbe, an expert at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told AFP
US, Ukraine officials say they’ll meet for 3rd day after progress on creating a security framework
- Witkoff and Kushner’s talks in Florida with Umerov, Ukraine’s lead negotiator, and Hnatov follow discussions between President Vladimir Putin and the US envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials say they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.
The two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statement from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.
“Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings,” the statement said. “Parties also separately reviewed the future prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint US–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”
The US and Ukrainian officials also discussed “deterrence capabilities” that Ukraine will need “to sustain a lasting peace.”
Witkoff and Kushner’s talks in Florida with Umerov, Ukraine’s lead negotiator, and Hnatov follow discussions between President Vladimir Putin and the US envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Friday’s session took place at the the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by Witkoff’s real estate development company.
Previous diplomatic attempts to break the deadlock have come to nothing and the war has continued unabated. Officials largely have kept a lid on how the latest talks are going, though Trump’s initial 28-point plan was leaked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s delegation in Florida wanted to hear from the US side about the talks at the Kremlin.
Zelensky, as well as European leaders backing him, have repeatedly accused Putin of stalling in peace talks while the Russian army tries to press forward with its invasion. Zelensky said in a video address late Thursday that officials wanted to know “what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine.”
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Friday, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov praised Kushner as potentially playing an important role in ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ushakov also took part in Tuesday’s talks at the Kremlin.
“If any plan leading to a settlement is put on paper, it will be the pen of Mr. Kushner that will lead the way,” Ushakov said.
The flattering comments about Kushner by the senior Russian official come as Putin has sought to sow division between Trump and Ukraine and Europe at a moment when Trump’s impatience with the conflict is mounting. Putin said his five-hour talks this week with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but some proposals were unacceptable.
Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was a senior adviser to Trump during his first term and was the president’s point person on developing the Abraham Accords, which formalized commercial and diplomatic ties between Israel and a trio of Arab nations.
Kushner has played a more informal role in Trump’s second go-around, but he helped Witkoff close out ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas this fall. Trump tapped Kushner again to pair up with Witkoff to try to find an endgame to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The European take on the peace talks
Ushakov, who accompanied Putin on a visit to India on Friday, repeated the Russian president’s recent criticism of Europe’s stance on the peace talks. Kyiv’s European allies are concerned about possible Russian aggression beyond Ukraine and want a prospective peace deal to include strong security guarantees.
Kyiv’s allies in Europe are “constantly putting forward demands that are unacceptable to Moscow,” Ushakov told Russia’s state-owned Zvezda TV. “Putting it mildly, the Europeans don’t help Washington and Moscow reach a settlement on the Ukrainian issues.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that he made progress during a visit to Beijing on getting Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s support for peace efforts.
“We exchanged deeply and truthfully on all points, and I saw a willingness from the (Chinese) president to contribute to stability and peace,” Macron said.
The French president said he stressed that Ukraine needs guarantees that Russia won’t attack it again if a settlement is reached and that Europe must have a voice in negotiations.
“The unity between Americans and Europeans on the Ukrainian issue is essential. And I say it, repeat it, emphasize it. We need to work together,” Macron said.
The latest drone attacks
Russian drones struck a house in central Ukraine, killing a 12-year-old boy, officials said, while long-range Ukrainian strikes reportedly targeted a Russian port and an oil refinery.
The Russian attack on Thursday night in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region destroyed the house where the boy was killed and also two women were injured, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 137 drones of various types during the night.
Ukrainian drones attacked a port and an oil refinery inside Russia overnight as part of Kyiv’s campaign to disrupt Russian logistics, Ukraine’s general staff said.
The drones struck Temriuk sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region and the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region, starting blazes, a statement said. Syzran is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said only that its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
