EU ministers seek to reassure Balkan nations
Photo: eu2009.cz
(HLUBOKA NAD VLTAVOU) - European foreign ministers on Saturday strongly backed Western Balkan nations joining the EU, despite fears a reform treaty allowing for the bloc's expansion may be delayed.
"The Balkans are a part of Europe and therefore they have to be a part of the EU too," said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency.
But chances of that happening were dimmed recently when German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a pause in enlargement, once Croatia joins up in the next few years.
But Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt spoke out strongly against such an idea, as he entered the second and last day of talks with his EU counterparts at Hluboka castle in the southern Czech Republic.
"If we were to slam the door in their face, not that I say that that will happen, it will have devastating consequences for the region," he warned.
After discussions among the 27 EU nations, the ministers were to meet later Saturday with counterparts from the Balkan hopefuls: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Turkey's minister was also due. Ankara has begun the EU membership process, but unlike states in the volatile Balkans has not received assurances that it will eventually be allowed to join.
There are also fears that ratification of the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty, designed to allow further expansion in a bloc which has already grown from 15 to 27 members since 2004, could be delayed.
The ministers' meeting came at a delicate time for their hosts.
Schwarzenberg and the rest of the Czech government were toppled in a no-confidence vote this week and it is unclear how long the administration of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek will continue in power.
The Czechs are one of the few nations still to ratify the treaty which must be passed by all EU members before it can come into force.
Irish voters, having rejected the text once, will have to vote in a second referendum on the subject later this year.
Still, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb suggested enlargement could continue without the treaty in place.
Although such a scenario would "make it a little bit more difficult to find a solution for enlargement, this is crisis management Union, we usually find a solution at the end of the day."
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