The meeting of the leaders of the Western Balkans and the European Union in Brussels ended on Thursday without a joint statement and press conference. The Cabinet of the European Council briefly said that there was no time for the planned conference because the meeting was prolonged and added that everything went well.
The main topic of the meeting was Albania and North Macedonia, which will not be open to accession negotiations this time as things stand, because Bulgaria has been blocking them since 2019. On the eve of the summit, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, whose government was voted no-confidence on Wednesday, briefly said that there is no prospect of opening negotiations today, but that perhaps a solution could be reached in the coming days.
The leaders of the Open Balkans, an initiative that brings together North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, held a joint media conference. Prime Ministers Edi Rama and Dmitar Kovačevski did not hide their disappointment in the fact that despite meeting the conditions, their countries will not get the start of accession negotiations.
Unlike his colleagues from Skopje and Tirana, the Serbian president, according to him, was "much less uncomfortable" in Brussels. Aleksandar Vučić stated that during the meeting Serbia was still criticized because of the Russian-Ukrainian issue
Speaking about the perception of the country in the European media, Vučić mentioned that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, 2629 articles have been published about Serbia threatening the entire region, Bosnia, and Kosovo. "Have you ever seen a single apology from those media", asked the Serbian president.
Vučić explained to the European media that the Open Balkans initiative is autochthonous and not subject to any external influence, especially not from Hungary or Russia. "We did it ourselves, we didn't need anyone else. The three Balkan nations sat down and together found a solution to some of their problems. Is it forbidden and should it be forbidden?"
He said that due to the situation in which Serbia is today, there is less frustration than "friends" from North Macedonia and Albania and added that he believes that Serbia can do more in December.
SP/FoNet
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