[ Western Balkans and EU ]

Tonight I just want to share a quote with you from an ECFR article by U. Guérot on EU and state building (the article is from February, but still remains of interest):

"In short, the question is whether we need 5 or 6 new states in the Western Balkans in the EU and how the institutional system of the EU will digest them, without, firstly, triggering nasty side-effects of the larger EU countries disengaging from the whole European undertaking, and secondly, without damaging the guiding principle of the EU: overcoming nationalism. (...) Can we think of a more creative solution? Could for example Croatia enter the EU without getting a Commissioner? (...) In short: as much as the independence of Kosovo is probably in the existing context the right thing to do now, let us not forget what the project of the EU was initially all about. We do not need more borders, we need less. They make anyway ever less sense in a modern political entity with the four basic freedoms, which are the pride of the EU. (...) Let Kosovo be the catalyst for more creativity about what we want to achieve with the EU."