EU Election Results Offer Opportunity for Western Balkans

The European Parliamentary elections are over and there is, potentially, a new balance of power within the EU. It is not quite the radically remade political landscape that some had anticipated, but for the Western Balkans it is a significant shift all the same.

To begin with, it seems clear that the big winners of the night - not in absolute seat numbers but in terms of greatly increased influence - will be the European Greens. Whether they'll quite be the "kingmakers" of the new parliament, and therefore the new EU Commission, remains to be seen. But their influence has undoubtedly grown.

For the Western Balkans, specifically the region's six non-EU states, WB6, that have expressed a wish to join the bloc, that is a good thing. Especially considering that the common wisdom heading into the vote was that it would be the anti-EU and Eurosceptic far-right that would dominate across the board.

To be clear, the far-right is presently more influential in European politics than at any time since 1945 and that will remain an ongoing, structural concern for the member, candidate, and aspirant states.

But the triumph of the Greens presents a much-needed respite, or at least the faint hope of as much, from the deteriorating commitment to enlargement on the part of Brussels, and many EU capitals. As I recently wrote for the Washington Post, the shocking pace at which large segments of the European political establishment have abandoned their promise of a "European perspective" for the Western Balkans, after having spent much of the last two decades insisting the Union was the "only game in town", is dizzying.

Can the Greens champion enlargement?

Chairman of Bosnian Presidency Milorad Dodik and Serbian President...