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Many obstacles for the country: the center of the capital of North Macedonia, Skopje, in December
Image: Getty
The enlargement of the European Union has ended for the moment. How can we prevent the Balkan states from turning to Russia, China or Turkey? This is already being considered in the EU.
northAfter the fall of the Iron Curtain, the European Union made a promise to its eastern neighbors that was as simple as it was successful: Make yourself like us, then you will belong to us. After 1989, Europe was no longer divided into Communists and Democrats, but into copycats and copycats, writes Bulgarian political scientist Iwan Krastew about this promise, which was called “Enlargement of the EU to the East.” In May 2004 it led to the accession of eight once communist states, as well as Cyprus and Malta. Three years later, Romania and Bulgaria followed, although they did not meet the central criterion of a functioning rule of law. In the summer of 2013, Croatia was the last new addition to date to walk through the Brussels door. Since then it has been closed.
Michael martens
Correspondent for Southeastern European countries based in Vienna.
For the six Balkan states that still want to join the EU – Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – the message is clear: the old promise that the reforms committed will eventually be followed by EU accession now does not apply. . No one felt this more clearly than North Macedonia, which had even changed the name of its state at the request of Greece in order to start talks on its accession to the EU. But the Greek was followed by a French veto, then a Bulgarian, this time referring to the supposedly “stolen” history and language of the Slavic Macedonians. The enlargement processes are full of political obstacles that have little to do with the reformist performance of the candidates.
