EU enlargement: Credibility and compliance

Too much time was wasted.

First let's stop this whole nonsense of Kosovo independence. Hope all former YU republics will enter EU as soon as possible.

Of course this does not include the Serbian province of Kosovo!

There will be no lasting stability in and European perspective for the Balkans as long as Serbia doesn't want to draw a clear line of discontinuity with the Milosevic policies. Instead of doing away with the legacy of the 1990s, Boris Tadic signs a "concordate" with Milosevic's heirs and sells Serbia's sovereignty to Putin.

I don't expect the EU to be very eager to accept more members at the moment. Given the economic crisis this doesn't seem the time to adopt many new financial obligations. Instead I do expect more half-way measures like SAA and visa-free entrance.

I don't buy that the EU needs the membership promise to have influence. We can see in Romania and Bulgaria that it is just the promise that works. Once the countries are a member this blackmailing stops working.

The article proposes giving all countries candidate membership. That ignores the Kosovo problem. It would be better to declare a zone from which every country automatically becomes a member. That way you evade the question whether Kosovo takes part as an independent country or as a part of Serbia.

I don't agree with the proposal to oblige the countries to commit themselves to an external arbiter. External arbiters like the ICTY and Ahtisaari don't have a very neutral image. And conflicts often have deep roots that wouldn't be addressed by such mediation. The conflict over Macedonia's for example is also indirectly about territorial claims. Instead countries should just oblige themselves not to block each others membership.

There will be no lasting stability in and European perspective for the Balkans as long as Serbia doesn't want to draw a clear line of discontinuity with the Milosevic policies. Instead of doing away with the legacy of the 1990s, Boris Tadic signs a "concordate" with Milosevic's heirs and sells Serbia's sovereignty to Putin.

Too much time was wasted.

First let's stop this whole nonsense of Kosovo independence. Hope all former YU republics will enter EU as soon as possible.

Of course this does not include the Serbian province of Kosovo!

I don't expect the EU to be very eager to accept more members at the moment. Given the economic crisis this doesn't seem the time to adopt many new financial obligations. Instead I do expect more half-way measures like SAA and visa-free entrance.

I don't buy that the EU needs the membership promise to have influence. We can see in Romania and Bulgaria that it is just the promise that works. Once the countries are a member this blackmailing stops working.

The article proposes giving all countries candidate membership. That ignores the Kosovo problem. It would be better to declare a zone from which every country automatically becomes a member. That way you evade the question whether Kosovo takes part as an independent country or as a part of Serbia.

I don't agree with the proposal to oblige the countries to commit themselves to an external arbiter. External arbiters like the ICTY and Ahtisaari don't have a very neutral image. And conflicts often have deep roots that wouldn't be addressed by such mediation. The conflict over Macedonia's for example is also indirectly about territorial claims. Instead countries should just oblige themselves not to block each others membership.