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AP Interview: Montenegro PM says would-be EU countries should continue reforms, not lose heart
PrintBRUSSELS - Montenegro's prime minister said Friday that countries aspiring to join the European Union should worry less about their chances and more about meeting the EU's conditions, which include instituting reforms and fighting corruption.
Some of those countries fear their odds of joining may be decreasing as the political will in the EU — which accepted 12 new members over the last decade — to accept even more members seems to have ebbed.
But analysts have warned that the increasingly complicated and drawn-out enlargement process shows the contrast between the EU's plan to accept the western Balkans and its implementation.
"This is also where enlargement fatigue within the EU meets "accession fatigue" in the Balkans, through the erosion of popular support for EU accession," said Jacques Rupnik, a researcher at the Paris-based EU Institute for Security Studies.
"No wonder 'Europeanization' looks different when seen from Brussels and from the countries at the receiving end," he said.
But Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Luksic said those countries should not lose heart.
"Candidate countries should focus on doing what the EU expects of them," Luksic said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Most of the newer members are former Communist nations where EU standards of rule of law, the fight against corruption and the protection of minorities have yet to be fully implemented.
Because of that, some older EU members are reluctant to accept new countries in the immediate future, something that has been labeled enlargement fatigue.
Luksic pointed out that aside from Croatia, all candidates in the western Balkans are still years away from joining, and predicted they will succeed in the end.
"I have not detected any enlargement fatigue in my meetings with EU officials," said Luksic, who held talks Thursday with EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.
"Everyone is aware that the EU will not be complete until the western Balkans are firmly integrated into the union," Luksic said.
Of the eight states of the western Balkans, only Slovenia is an EU member. Croatia expects to be inducted next year or in 2013.
The other countries — Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia — are still in the preliminary phases of the process. Kosovo, whose independence remains unrecognized by five EU states, has not even started down the road to membership.
Macedonia's candidacy has been frozen for several years over because Greece objects to the country calling itself by that name.
Two other nations, Iceland and Turkey, are also seeking EU membership.
Montenegro, a nation of 673,000 people, emerged as an independent nation in 2006 after the dissolution of its short-lived union with Serbia. EU officials say it is unlikely become a member of the union before 2016.
After his meeting with Luksic, Van Rompuy said fighting corruption and organized crime, strengthening the rule of law and media freedom, and resolving the issue of displaced persons remain "significant challenges" for all candidate countries.
