Balkan Commission urges EU to fast-track membership for the Balkan States

Press release - April 12, 2005 - Brussels

Chairman Giuliano Amato presents report to European Institutions

A report of the International Commission on the Balkans released today calls for the European Union to speed up the accession of the Balkan States in order to foster political and economic stability across Europe. The Commission concludes that a new contract between the Balkans and the EU is essential to international security and offers deliverables in the form of a regional framework, a process and benchmarks.

On the eve of the European Parliament vote on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, the report, The Balkans in Europe's Future, was launched in Brussels by Balkan Commission Chair and former Prime Minister of Italy Giuliano Amato together with Commission members Richard von Weizsacker, former President of Germany, Ilir Meta, former Prime Minister of Albania, and other dignitaries.

"Our report concludes that while the political and trusteeship arrangements prevailing in the Western Balkans were useful and indeed necessary to bring about peace in the mid-late 1990's, the status quo has outlived its usefulness and that the Balkans region should move from the current stage of protectorates and weak states to the stage of EU accession," Amato said. "The persisting uncertainly about the political future, the complex nature of many of the constitutional arrangements in particular and the constraints on domestic responsibility have become obstacles to investment and economic progress."

"What is needed is a clear regional road-map, ready by the end of 2006 that combines a regional approach embracing all the countries and peoples of the Western Balkans as future members of the EU and of NATO with clear country-specific conditions and timetables," he continued. "An EU-Balkan summit in autumn 2006 would publicly set the roadmap and the economic resources that would be available in support of the region and for each country that meets the conditions and criteria agreed on. If the EU does not devise a new bold Member State building strategy for accession that could encompass all Balkan countries as new members within the next decade then it will remain caught in the region as a colonial power."

The Commission will present the report to Council High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, to Freedom, Security and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini and to Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.

Simultaneously in Washington, a second delegation of the Commission will present the report to the US Department of State and the National Security Council. The Delegation in the United States will be led by Commission Members Kemal Dervis, member of the Turkish Parliament, Goran Svilanovic, former Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro, and other dignitaries.

The report will be presented in Belgrade on 14 April and in key European capitals in the coming weeks.

The result of four study tours to Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, the report recommends moving toward EU membership as the only way to prevent the Western Balkans from turning into the black hole of Europe, and it says that without the Balkans in the EU, the process of unification will remain incomplete. The Commission also urges the US government to play a more active role in the region and is convinced that co-ordinated EU-US policies will be essential.

"Stability, peace and economic growth in the Balkans is a must for the security of Europe and has implications for the entire Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region and indeed the United States. The absence of immediate disasters in the region should not lead to neglect or complacency," Amato concluded.

Key recommendations:

• Closing the status issues by autumn of 2006
  
• An EU-Balkans summit in autumn 2006 offering an EU roadmap for each Balkan country
  
• A new EU Member State building strategy for the Balkan countries
  
• NATO membership as the second important pillar of integration strategy, with Albania, Croatia and Macedonia invited to join at the NATO summit in 2006
  
• Co-ordinated EU-US policies towards the region

A full copy of the report is available on: www.balkan-commission.org (click here)

Background on the Balkan Commission

The international Commission on the Balkans is chaired by former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. Its members are internationally renowned decision-makers from Europe and the United States: The former Presidents of Germany Richard von Weizsacker and of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov, the former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt, of Belgium Jean-Luc Dehaene, of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlatko Lagumdzija, and of Albania Ilir Meta; two former foreign ministers, Mircea Geoana of Romania and Goran Svilanovic of Serbia and Montenegro; the Slovenian EU Commissioner Janez Potocnik; Avis Bohlen, former US assistant secretary of state; Kemal Dervis member of the Turkish Parliament; Istvan Gyarmati, chairman of the board, Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy, Hungary; Francois Heisbourg, director of the foundation of strategic research, France; Bruce Jackson, president, Project on Transitional Democracies, US; Neven Mimica, former minister for European Integration, Croatia; Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former governor of the BBC; Alexander Rondos, former advisor to the Greek Foreign Minister; Ivan Krastev, chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria.

The objective of the International Commission is to develop a vision for the integration of the countries of Southeast Europe into the European Union and other international structures highlighting the progress made to date, supported by recommendations for action to the governments of the region and to the international community. As Chairman Amato has said, "We intend to be helpful both to the decision makers and to the societies in Southeast Europe as well as to the incoming European Commission."

The International Commission on the Balkans has been initiated and is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, The King Baudouin Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.