Slovak FM Lajčák: EU getting further away from Western Balkans

miroslav, lajcak
Miroslav Lajčák © European Union , 2016 / Source: EC - Audiovisual Service / Photo: Georges Boulougouris

BELGRADE – The EU is getting farther away from the Western Balkans, an area that is natural to it, with growing popular frustration in the region over the lack of a tangible EU, says Slovak FM Miroslav Lajcak, who will soon take over as president of the United Nations General Assembly, Tanjug reports.

An unfulfilled European perspective would generate nationalism and, subsequently, fragmentation by violent means, Lajcak told Novi magazin in an interview.

One of the consequences would be migration from the region, which would open the door to migration from the Near and Middle East and Africa, he said.

“I do not think the EU, or Europe in the broader sense, can afford such a scenario,” said Lajcak.

Earlier in the month, Lajcak had raised the red flag following a visit of EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini to the Balkans, labeling it as a failure amid increasing concerns that the EU does not know how to deal with its troublesome southern region anymore.

Miroslav Lajčák Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia and a deep insider of the region, stated that he thinks “the High Representative returned from her Balkan trip frustrated,” and that “the EU is becoming less serious when it comes to enlargement … now we have two countries that are about to collapse, and three that are in deep political crisis.

The EU is becoming a less and less serious interlocutor when it comes to enlargement. We left the Western Balkans by word and deed and now we see the consequences. We have two states about to break up and three are in a deep political crisis. And the reason is that the EU hasn’t fulfilled its leadership role, as a party in the dialogue which should offer those countries prospects“, Lajcak said.

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