German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to step up the pace of EU enlargement to include Western Balkan countries such as Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the face of Russian and Chinese attempts to exert influence in the region.
“The faster we become stronger as a European Union in these geopolitical times, the better,” Germany’s top diplomat said on Monday at a meeting with her Montenegrin colleague Filip Ivanovic in the capital Podgorica.
At the same time, she emphasised: “Enlargement is not an end in itself, but serves to strengthen our common Europe.”
The Russian war against Ukraine makes EU enlargement in the Western Balkans a “geopolitical necessity,” she added. As in Ukraine, “the European project is also a guarantor of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and prosperity here in the Western Balkans.”
Ivanovic called Baerbock’s visit, at a time of major reforms in his country, a confirmation that the European Union is interested in the Western Balkans.
“There is no alternative to integration if we want a stable region. It is the path to stability and a simpler settlement of disputes,” he added.
Montenegro has run up huge debts with China. The background to this is the construction of a motorway that the Chinese want to build from the Adriatic to the Serbian border by 2030.
Since construction began in 2009, only around 40 of the planned 167 kilometres have been completed. Most recently, there was speculation that total costs had risen to €2.7 billion ($2.9 billion).
Baerbock acknowledged that it was a mistake “that Europe was not there when important infrastructure investments were needed” in Montenegro.
Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, along with Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo, form the Western Balkans.
The European Union is urging the countries to pursue the reforms needed for integration with the 27-member political and economic bloc.
Brussels views Montenegro as being furthest along in the accession process, but the pace is slow. In December 2022, Bosnia-Herzegovina was granted the status of EU candidate country, but negotiations have yet to begin and no new EU entrants are expected before 2030.
Baerbock left Montenegro for the Bosnian capital Sarajevo in the evening and held more talks with politicians.
She spoke with presidents from the Bosniak, Serbian and Croatian ethnic groups: Denis Becirovic (Bosniak), Zeljka Cvijanovic (Serbian) and Zeljko Komsic (Croatian). The presidency rotates every eight months.
During a meeting with the high representative of the international community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the German Christian Schmidt, the foreign minister was informed about the complex situation in the country following a devastating war in the mid 1990s.
The former Yugoslav state of Bosnia-Herzegovina is divided into two entities called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) and the ethnic Serbian part Republika Srpska (RS).
The president of RS is the Serbian nationalist Milorad Dodik, who is endeavouring to secede fro the union, with the FBiH controlled by Croats and Bosniaks. He is also seen as being close to Russia.
“We are firmly opposed to those who put obstacles in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s path to the EU with their fantasies of division,” Baerbock said before landing in Bosnia.
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