The EU's plan is to join six countries: Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also the state of Kosovo, writes the Financial Times, Koha.net reports.
According to this newspaper, the main reason for this action by Brussels is that the Balkans serve as the "main" path" for the penetration of immigrants to the European Union. However, this is not all. The FT points out that EU strategists fear that Russia is dangerously expanding its sphere of influence, precisely in the territory where it traditionally has allies.
As this newspaper points out, Moscow has begun to comment cynically on the promises that the EU makes to the countries of the Western Balkans regarding membership, imposing itself as an "alternative".
"A significant number of citizens in the region believe that their country will never be part of the EU," quotes FT Florian Biberin, an expert on Southeast Europe at the University of Graz.
The new Brussels plan will be presented to the European Commission exactly on February 6, when the EU should, according to previous warnings, make public the plan for the Western Balkans, reports Koha.net.
The Financial Times notes that the new plan will be approved.
The deadline for the "great enlargement of the EU" will be the date already mentioned, the year 2025, as the date when Serbia will become a member of the EU. Many think that this date is too ambitious, but EU diplomats say that this is very necessary in order to "strengthen the connection between Brussels and the states that emerged from the dissolution of the SFRY - Yugoslavia".
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An EU diplomat who is committed to the expansion of the EU, Koha.net reports the article of this newspaper, says that "this six is not outside the EU, but they are already inside it and that Brussels needs them". Also according to him, the year 2025 is the frame date, which adapts to the changes.
However, the Financial Times points out that this six will be obliged, before the final membership, to finally solve all the open problems that have existed for years, as well as the problem of corruption. With this view, as noted, Serbia and Montenegro are closer to the 2025 goal.
The newspaper also underlines that both Bulgaria, which currently leads the Union, and Austria, which will come after it, have prioritized the expansion of the EU in the Western Balkans.
