Can Europe enlarge in the midst of crisis?

Former European Commission official Michael Leigh is worried that a European Union consumed by the debt crisis is sending dangerous signs of doubt on enlargement to the Balkan states aspiring to membership: [S]ecurity and stability in the Balkans cannot be taken for granted. For months Kosovo Serbs have barricaded roads in defiance of NATO forces ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Former European Commission official Michael Leigh is worried that a European Union consumed by the debt crisis is sending dangerous signs of doubt on enlargement to the Balkan states aspiring to membership:

Former European Commission official Michael Leigh is worried that a European Union consumed by the debt crisis is sending dangerous signs of doubt on enlargement to the Balkan states aspiring to membership:

[S]ecurity and stability in the Balkans cannot be taken for granted. For months Kosovo Serbs have barricaded roads in defiance of NATO forces because Pristina, the Kosovar capital, asserts its right to control the border with Serbia. Some barricades have at last started to come down under EU pressure, but the situation remains unstable. The north of Kosovo is becoming ungovernable, with Serbs there rejecting the authority both of Pristina and Belgrade. Bosnia-Herzegovina remains paralyzed because of ethnic conflict. There has been civil strife in Albania, and Macedonia’s EU and NATO prospects are blocked by the dispute with Greece over the country’s name.

This explosive mixture has been kept under control mainly because of the whole region’s ambition to join the EU. Most people in the Balkans still see EU membership as their countries’ path to salvation….EU leaders should take some time out from their crisis talks on Friday to send a positive signal to a troubled region that is on their doorstep.

Leigh is particularly concerned that an EU failure to make Serbia an official candidate for membership this week could have dramatic political consequences in that country. Several European leaders have been using the carrot of official candidacy to pressure Serbia into concessions over Kosovo, and it appears that intense negotiations on that issue will continue right up to Friday’s critical European Council meeting. 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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