Western Balkans' integration into EU in focus at Albania summit

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Albania on Monday to attend the latest Berlin Process Summit, focusing on closer cooperation between the European Union and the Western Balkan countries. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brussels is eager to strengthen its ranks, but significant barriers remain.

Albania's Prime minister Edi Rama welcomes France's President Emmanuel Macron as he arrives for an EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, on December 6, 2022. © AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN

The Berlin Process was initiated in 2014 as a platform for high-level cooperation between six Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – and EU member states' governments. 

The aim: to strengthen integration between Western Balkan nations and, eventually, achieve full EU membership.

After years of stagnation, Brussels' push for enlargement of the EU gained new momentum after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

During the 2023 Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia last August, EU Council President Charles Michels called for 2030 to be the deadline for a new EU expansion, in which the Berlin Process would play a substantial role. 

For now, the Berlin Process has resulted in a series of joint projects in the fields of economy, security, social cooperation and ecology, which, according to the Berlin Process website, "brought the region closer to the EU".

Stalled progress

But according to German think tank Stiftung Wissenshaft und Politik (SWP), implementation of the agreements by the Western Balkan states "has often stalled".

In a December 2022 paper, SWP urged: "Ger­many and the EU should insist more emphatically on the implementation of adopted agreements, because the Berlin Process has the potential to restore the declining credibility of the Western Balkan states' prospects for EU accession."

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All members of the Western Balkans – former Yugoslavian republics Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro as well as Albania – have EU ambitions.

Only Croatia has so far become an EU member, in 2013. The others are official candidates for membership, with the exception of Kosovo, which is still claimed by Serbia and not officially recognised as an independent state by EU member states Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

In spite of that, Pristina applied in December 2022.

Kosovo-Serbia dispute

But Serbia and Kosovo remain the enfants terribles among prospective EU members.

Brussels demands that Kosovo and Serbia first solve their strained relationship. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said last month that there will not be a European future for either country unless they come to an understanding as soon as possible.

But, says BalkanInsight, a publication that monitors the region, the 24 September killing of a police officer in Kosovo by a group of heavily-armed Serbs, three of whom also died in the shootout, "has underscored the failure of European Union-led talks to resolve relations between Serbia and Kosovo".

"Kosovo and Serbia are risking to be left behind when other regional partners are moving quicker towards Europe," said Borrell in September. 

Economic questions

Meanwhile, Albania's President Edi Rama, the host of Monday's Berlin Process Summit, is far from optimistic.

"There should not only be reforms and criticism that are necessary, but also the most consistent support, and I’m not talking only from the financial point of view, but also the market access of our enterprises," he said, quoted by Euractiv in August.

Municipal workers sweep the pavement outside the venue of the EU Western Balkans Summit, in Tirana, Albania, on 5 December 2022. © AP - Andreea Alexandru

He added that while the EU has been discussing infrastructure for many years, the tangible investment in the region has come from China, Arab nations and the United States.

"What is happening all these years in these countries is that on the one hand, through the Berlin Process, we talked about infrastructure and how to finance the projects, on the other hand, the infrastructure is being built by the Americans, the Chinese and the Arabs," Rama said.

In 2021, the European Commission announced  the "Global Gateway", a plan to mobilise 300 billion euros in public and private infrastructure investment around the world, a move seen as a response to China's Belt and Road strategy.

The strategy would also benefit the Western Balkans. But until now, it has not resulted in concrete projects.  

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Meanwhile, closer cooperation between the Western Balkans and the EU would fit with French President Emmanuel Macron's "European Political Community" initiative.

Proposed in May 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during France's presidency of the Council of the European Union, its aim was to strengthen links between EU member states and non-EU European states "who share the same values" – along the lines of the Berlin Process. 

Macron will be attending the meeting in Tirana, giving him the occasion to pay an official state visit to Albania – the first ever by a sitting French president.

Empty talk?

For now, it is unclear whether the summit will prove just another talk shop.

Earlier this month, European Union leaders declared support for adding new members to the bloc but set no target date, and warned candidates such as Ukraine that there would be no "shortcuts".

At that summit, convened in the Spanish city of Granada, leaders of the 27-nation bloc proclaimed that EU enlargement is an "investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity".

But they also said that both the EU and would-be members – which include Ukraine, Moldova and Western Balkan states – would need to make big changes to be ready for an enlarged union.