Bulgaria initiates an EU Strategy for the Western Balkans
13 October 2011 NewsBulgaria, Greece and Romania have proposed an EU Strategy for the Western Balkans intended to accelerate the expansion process. The foreign ministers of three countries today sent a letter to Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle and European Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn, setting out the main objectives of the Strategy:
- Fulfilment of the membership criteria, including the Copenhagen political criteria,
- Enabling more European projects in the region, including in the new EU Cohesion Policy: and
- Cross-border cooperation in the construction of infrastructure, energy and the fight against organised crime.
The strategy also provides for better management of available EU funds, which may be of greater benefit to the people of the region. “Our commitment to the European prospects of the Western Balkans is based on the conviction that only in this way will be assist reforms in our neighbouring countries and in the same way good neighbourly relations in the region," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov said.
“Precisely because of this principle, we welcome the European Commision progress reports on the Western Balkans as positive and significant,” Minister Mladenov said in reaction to the Enlargement Package reports published on October 12. Mladenov emphasised Bulgaria’s satisfaction with the concrete progress made by Serbia, to which the Commission had recommended the granting of candidate country status, and the achievements of Montenegro, for which the next crucial step had been recommended, the start of membership talks. He said that the reports also showed the EU’s will to move forward its enlargement policy and to provide specific parameters for assessing progress.