The Global Conversation: Balkan bids to join the EU

SManalysis

By Efi Koutsokosta Euronews

last updated: 15/05/2018

Now Reading: The Global Conversation: Balkan bids to join the EU
 The Global Conversation: Balkan bids to join the EU

The European Commission is keen to offer the prospect of EU membership to six Balkan states, amid growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.

Albania aspires to join the bloc along with west Balkan neighbours Serbia, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo - most of which were war zones after Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s.

Yet disputes from the past and the need for reforms are among the issues needing to be settled before the EU opens its arms to the new would-be members.

Albania,along with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, has won European Commission backing for membership talks to begin. On Thursday, a Western Balkans summit in Sofia will discuss their accession bids.

Euronews spoke to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

We also went to Belgrade, with Serbia edging towards EU membership, perhaps within seven or eight years. Yet obstacles remain, notably over relations with its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence a decade ago.

Euronews spoke to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

We started our conversations though in Albania, which should know by the end of June whether EU member countries will approve the European Commission's recommendation to start entry talks.