TIRANA, December 5 – Apart from symbolism, there is nothing substantial in the high-level meeting between the EU and the countries of the Western Balkans, and no decision on the accession process will be taken during it, the Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB), Aleksandra Tomanic told Albanian Daily News in an exclusive interview.
Ms. Tomanic, an expert on EU relations with the Western Balkans, was generally pessimistic about the process of enlargement of the Union towards the Western Balkans due to the fact that it has been 20 years since the Thessaloniki meeting where great promises were made for enlargement but, according to her, nothing has been done.
Brussels itself is not at all prepared for new members even from an organizational point of view, she told the senior diplomatic editor, Genc Mlloja in a conversation on the eve of the Summit.
But she thought that the December 6 meeting in Tirana will be a symbolic gesture for Albania and nothing else.
Meanwhile, EFB’s Director Tomanic was harsh that Kosovars are deprived of visa liberalization when they have fulfilled all the conditions since two years
As far as the Open Balkans is concerned, Ms. Tomanic said that the initiative had an empty character and no substance since its launch because of the very fact that half of the 6 countries of the region do not participate in it. /Argumentum.al
