site.btaGeoffrey Van Orden: EU Needs a Bold Strategy to Secure the Western Balkans' Integration

The European Union must take a bold approach to the Western Balkans and recognize the region as strategically significant, Geoffrey Van Orden said in an interview with BTA's Simona-Alex Mihaleva. Van Orden previously served as the European Parliament rapporteur on Bulgaria's EU membership progress.

Van Orden said a crucial question for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia is whether their accession as full members of the Western club is politically essential. "By that, I mean the Euro-Atlantic club, NATO and the European Union."

"In my view, you only have to look at the map and you have to look at the other influences which are coming to bear in that region. In the Western Balkans, you see that Russia is becoming more active again, China is becoming active, even Iran is active in the area. What has to be done to shift attitudes so that those countries feel they are firmly on a path to democracy and Euro Atlantic integration, and it seems to me that they need the confidence of being inside the club", van Orden said.

"It was the argument that I made for Bulgaria 17 years ago or more. It's the argument I would make today. I know there are some voices, and we've heard them this morning that say, oh, no, you have to get all the structures right, and all the democratic bits and pieces have to be lined up," Van Orden noted. "Well, there are problems in every country on that basis. On that basis, there would be no alliances. So, I think we have to be bold in terms of our attitude to the Western Balkans and recognize them as being of strategic significance."

He addressed the question of whether all Western Balkan countries should join the EU together or based on their individual readiness for membership. He said this was a topic of debate in 2003, when it was decided that certain countries would join the EU, while Bulgaria and Romania were deferred.

"Indeed, there was even an argument about whether we should view Bulgaria and Romania together. This is a sort of semantic argument, in a way. Clearly, some countries, I mean, some countries, are members of NATO already. Yes, some are not. There is the whole difficult question of Kosovo and the recognition Kosovo or not, whatever the future of that place is."

Serbia and five EU member states—Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain—do not recognize Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008. Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009 and became a candidate country in 2012. Kosovo applied for membership in 2022 but has not yet achieved candidate status.

Van Orden noted that some Western Balkan countries are larger, have bigger economies, or are more vulnerable to Russian pressure and interference, and this must be considered. He added that accession to the EU is, at the end of the day, a political decision.

"I know that there are all these, economic, political, democratic and other hurdles to be overcome by any candidate country for the European Union, but at the end of the day, it is a political decision. We saw that back in 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. Neither country was 100% ready at that time, but a political decision was made, as was made, by the way, in 2004 when you had that large new membership of the European Union," van Orden.

Last year, European Council President Charles Michel said the EU would be ready for the Western Balkans to join by 2030. Van Orden, however, noted that the situation in Europe and globally by that time is hard to predict.

"What I do know is all the calculations that people make about economic progress and democratic process will come to nothing if our security is in doubt, that is the problem, and so we have to be strong and united, because there are very, very powerful external threats to our whole way of life," he added.

Van Orden also said Bulgaria’s experience with EU integration, even after its accession, could serve as an example for the Western Balkans.

"For 17 years, it [Bulgaria] has been a member of the European Union. And I see a lot of progress, a lot of economic progress. It's very visible when you come to, for example, Sofia. So, a lot has changed for the better, but there's still much to be done. Some of the old problems in Bulgaria are still there. Organized crime, some of the higher judiciary, some issues there still […] I think the Bulgarian experience would suggest, well, look, we can still try and overcome these difficulties within the European Union. And maybe that's the message that needs to be conveyed to other countries."

Van Orden is a prominent European politician and expert in geopolitics, international relations, and national security. He served as a rapporteur on Bulgaria's progress toward European integration for several years. Last week, Van Orden attended the Western Balkans conference organized by the New Direction Foundation in Sofia.