European Parliament encourages Balkans' EU integration

European Parliament encourages Balkans' EU integration

Balkan experts predict that the EU accession process will continue unabated.

The European parliament will encourage Balkan countries to strengthen the EU integration process despite opposition by new EU-sceptic parties, experts said.

In the new parliament, far-right political parties that oppose EU integration -- such as Greece's Golden Dawn -- gained 141 seats out of 751 seats.

The question is how the EU expansion policy will advance, said Risto Nikovski, former Macedonian ambassador to the United Kingdom.

"The role of the European parliament in relation to the EU used to be minimal. But with the recent changes, that role is reinforced, albeit still not enough [for a significant departure]," Nikovski said.

The European parliament's mandate should be to accelerate EU integration rather than encourage lethargy, according to Goran Ilic, a professor of international politics at the State University in Bitola.

"That is because all western Balkan countries continue to intensify relations with the EU countries and the Union as a whole. A parliament's structure may vary, but the EU values are eternal," Ilic told SETimes. Support for EU enlargement under the same conditions as Croatia remains the main goal, said Andrea Feldman, a member of Party Sustainable Development of Croatia's presidency that is represented in the European parliament.

"In collaboration with other Green Party MPs, we will work on making all regional countries closer, and support them with advice and experience we gained in the accession process and by co-operating on reforms," Feldman told SETimes.

Keeping the EU accession momentum is as important as it was for Serbia...