During her recent visit to Belgrade and Tirana, Chancellor Angela Merkel relaunched for the last time the call for the enlargement of the European Union: “EU members should always keep in mind that there is an absolute geostrategic interest for us to really accept these countries in the European Union – he said – We see that there is the influence of many other nations of the world in the Balkans ”.
A melancholic and even a bit pathetic attempt to restore breath to that political path started in 2014 in Berlin to integrate Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia into the Union.
Perhaps the only failure written in the curriculum of the strongest and most successful political leader in the last sixteen years of the history of Germany, Europe and, perhaps even more.
In recent years, the final objective of the Berlin summits has gradually weakened, corroded by the underground opposition of many of the members of the Union. And also from the open opposition of Russia, a country with which Merkel has always maintained ambivalent relations and with which she has never come close to breaking up.
Last July, participating in yet another Berlin summit, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (the true political heir of the chancellor who is retiring) also re-launched the goal of integration: “We must accelerate the enlargement process and in parallel, to bring the Western Balkans on our path so that they become more sustainable, digital and resilient ”. And you have announced 28 billion in investments in the region.
But the president has made it known that, despite visiting the Balkans in those days, she will not attend the Open Balkans meeting scheduled for the end of the month in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Open Balkans is an initiative of the governments of Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia to liberalize the movement of men and goods between the three countries. But, as its main promoter, the Albanian premier Edi Rama, has above all a political objective that looks to Brussels. “Open Balkans is the son of the Berlin strategy – said Rama – It is not an alternative initiative to the Berlin process. Open Balkan is a mechanism to accelerate the Berlin process; that’s all. There is nothing in the Open Balkan initiative that can contradict the Berlin process ”.
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Von der Leyen therefore seems, beyond the assertions of principle, not to want to compromise too much with this project which, among other things, for the moment involves only three of the countries in the region.
But even “the absolute geostrategic interest” mentioned by Merkel does not seem to have a great appeal today in European diplomacy.
After the unilateral retreat over Afghanistan, the various countries feel much freer to establish bilateral relations with Moscow. And, on the other hand, Merkel herself has just celebrated the inauguration of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which, transporting fuel from Russia to Germany, seems to seal more an alliance than a contrast with the main of those nations that try to infiltrate the Balkans.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the pipeline a geopolitical weapon of Russia.
Therefore, despite the good intentions and the announcements, the image of the Berlin summit is increasingly blurred and the balance of these years of meetings is truly poor and it can be said that it has almost failed.
The reasons are to be found on the one hand, as we have seen, in the reservations that Europe has towards the Balkans and in its ambiguous strategies, on the other in the internal dynamics themselves. Having solved the problems for which Greece has blocked Macedonia’s accession for decades, it is now Bulgaria that is vetoing Skopje for historical and territorial claims.
Serbia, on the other hand, blocks any opening towards Kosovo, and, through the Srbska minority, maintains instability in the Bosnian Federation.
And it does the same by blowing on the ethnic-religious conflicts within Montenegro.
And the Berlin process was also affected by Angela Merkel’s ill-concealed preference for Serbian President Vucic. The least suitable character of all for a policy of collaboration in view of European integration.
