EU analysts warn Balkan enlargement focus may sideline unresolved regional disputes
A European Council on Foreign Relations report cautions that the EU’s push to fast-track Montenegro and Albania could distract from lingering political challenges in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.
In a new ECFR report, Milica Delević argues that the EU’s current emphasis on Montenegro and Albania’s accession risks eclipsing deeper political and reform hurdles elsewhere in the Western Balkans. Montenegro has opened all 33 negotiating chapters and provisionally closed 16, while Albania has provisionally closed three chapters as of July. The forthcoming European Commission enlargement package, due on Sept. 30, could steer EU leaders toward the easiest candidates, but the report stresses that the bloc’s founding strategy aimed at regional cooperation and post-war stability.
Unresolved matters in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s cumbersome constitution, and North Macedonia’s disputes with neighbours still demand EU attention. Delević proposes a more flexible integration model that grants partial single-market access in exchange for reforms, echoing the Commission’s existing Growth Plan. She warns that weak rule-of-law implementation could diminish the accession process’s transformative impact and destabilize the region.
