The Slovenian president claims that BiH will receive candidate status by the end of the week
The President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, said today that he is visiting Belgrade to consult with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, about whether there is enough political will in the region to preserve the European perspective of the Western Balkans and stability.
“The war in Ukraine does not contribute to peace and stability in the Western Balkans, but Vučić and I both agree that, regardless of all the mistrust and bilateral problems, there is enough political will in the Western Balkans to preserve peace and the European perspective,” he said. Pahor.
He said he believed there was a possibility for all the leaders of the region to agree on three central issues.
“The first thing is that Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania speed up the negotiations for joining the EU, that Bosnia and Herzegovina gets candidate status by the end of the week, and that the EU fulfills its obligation regarding visa liberalization. ,” he said.
Pahor said that he was worried by the fact that the level of trust in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina is lower than it was before, and that the dialogue did not lead to the solution that everyone wanted.
“I think that the Open Balkans project was created so that certain things, if Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina were included in it, problems that now seem intractable, could be solved more easily in the spirit of cooperation,” he said.
When asked about Serbia’s position on the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia, he replied that he believed that if Belgrade had a secure European future, he would think more about sanctions and not just about condemning the war in Ukraine.
“I do not support the decision of the Serbian president not to impose sanctions on Russia, but I can understand his decision. I think that this decision would be helped by a greater and more decisive will of Brussels for the countries of the Western Balkans to join the EU more quickly,” he said.
Pahor visited Belgrade before the summit of the Brdo-Brioni initiative, which will be held in Slovenia on September 12, reports Klix.well.