"Peace in Balkans requires European framework"

Only a European framework can bring peace to the western Balkans, says Goran Svilanovic. Presiding over the First Working Table of the Stability Pact for Eastern Europe in Vienna, Svilanovic, the organization's official, said today that the EU should give all the west Balkan states candidate status, and that it should launch talks with them immediately, as it had been proven in the past that countries had speedily carried out reforms, having once entered the negotiating process. "Peace in Balkans requires European framework" “The closer a country is to EU membership the greater the subsidies it receives, while the further away it is, the less it receives. That pyramid should be reverted to encourage development in those countries that are further away, in order to accelerate their entry into the EU,” he asserted. Svilanovic was also in favor of scrapping the visa regime, adding that people in Serbia could not understand, as he put it, the Schengen wall around Europe. “It’s not true that the visa regime was introduced for security purposes. The Croatian general, Ante Gotovina, was found in Spain, while the murderers of the late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic received Schengen visas without any difficulty, while ordinary people have to play exorbitant fees, if they want a visa,” complained Svilanovic. The Austrian ambassador to the UN, Wolfgang Petritsch, said that the constant talk of sovereignty in the Balkans was present because the EU was weak. “The solution to the problems in the west Balkans can only be found in the EU. If we continue to solve problems one by one, then there will be no long-lasting solution." "Once the Kosovo question has been settled, for which independence is the only solution as far as I can see, the EU needs to offer the whole region – and we’re only talking about a few million inhabitants here – candidate status,” he explained. In his opinion, the costs of those states entering the EU would be considerably less that those brought about by non-entry, and the resulting constant investment in security. At the same meeting in Vienna, promoting his new book “Tito’s Interpreter”, Ivan Ivanji said that it was not just a matter of Kosovo, but of the Albanian question which even the Berlin Congress had failed to completely settle. He believes that the Kosovo issue will have consequences also for Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and even Greece.

"Peace in Balkans requires European framework"

“The closer a country is to EU membership the greater the subsidies it receives, while the further away it is, the less it receives. That pyramid should be reverted to encourage development in those countries that are further away, in order to accelerate their entry into the EU,” he asserted.

Svilanović was also in favor of scrapping the visa regime, adding that people in Serbia could not understand, as he put it, the Schengen wall around Europe.

“It’s not true that the visa regime was introduced for security purposes. The Croatian general, Ante Gotovina, was found in Spain, while the murderers of the late Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić received Schengen visas without any difficulty, while ordinary people have to play exorbitant fees, if they want a visa,” complained Svilanović.

The Austrian ambassador to the UN, Wolfgang Petritsch, said that the constant talk of sovereignty in the Balkans was present because the EU was weak.

“The solution to the problems in the west Balkans can only be found in the EU. If we continue to solve problems one by one, then there will be no long-lasting solution."

"Once the Kosovo question has been settled, for which independence is the only solution as far as I can see, the EU needs to offer the whole region – and we’re only talking about a few million inhabitants here – candidate status,” he explained.

In his opinion, the costs of those states entering the EU would be considerably less that those brought about by non-entry, and the resulting constant investment in security.

At the same meeting in Vienna, promoting his new book “Tito’s Interpreter”, Ivan Ivanji said that it was not just a matter of Kosovo, but of the Albanian question which even the Berlin Congress had failed to completely settle.

He believes that the Kosovo issue will have consequences also for Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and even Greece.