Leaders of member states of the European Union will call on all Western Balkan countries to impose sanctions against Russia and work to prevent the circumvention of restrictive measures imposed by Brussels against Moscow following the start of the war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe common vision of the future includes shared values and common responsibility. As we deepen our cooperation with our partners, we call on them to make swift and sustainable progress towards full alignment with the EU\u2019s common foreign and security policy, including EU restrictive measures, and to act in accordance with the circumstances,\u201d emphasizes the draft of the declaration to be adopted at the end of the summit.<\/p>\n
The leaders of the EU member states will meet with their counterparts from the Western Balkans on December 13 at the annual EU-Western Balkans summit.<\/p>\n
Kosovo will be represented by the President of the state, Vjosa Osmani.<\/p>\n
In a statement released to the media on Tuesday, it is stated that Osmani \u201cwill discuss the need to expedite the integration process in light of ongoing security challenges in the region and beyond, starting with support for the candidate status of the Republic of Kosovo\u201d.<\/p>\n
The final declaration is approved by the heads of state and governments of the EU, and the text of the declaration is harmonized together with the leaders of the participating countries in the summit.<\/p>\n
Alignment with the declaration is not mandatory for the countries of the region, but there are expectations towards them, according to senior EU officials who have worked on organizing the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, non-alignment with the declaration sends a negative signal to us because it indicates the geopolitical orientation of these countries and whether they share our common values,\u201d said a senior EU official familiar with this summit format.<\/p>\n
Among the Western Balkan countries, only Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The EU regularly calls on Belgrade to officially harmonize its foreign policy with EU policies.<\/p>\n
Confirmation of the EU perspective for the region<\/strong><\/p>\n The European Council has stated that the EU-Western Balkans summit is an opportunity to reaffirm the perspective of the Western Balkans for accession to the EU, as well as the need for reforms based on EU values and principles.<\/p>\n Among the agenda items are the deepening of political and economic engagement in the Western Balkans, the approach of partners from the region, and the promotion of gradual integration, the building of an economic foundation for the future, as well as the mitigation of Moscow\u2019s influence in the war against Ukraine, initiated in February 2022.<\/p>\n For the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo<\/strong><\/p>\n In the final declaration, a special space will be dedicated to the process of normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia.<\/p>\n In this regard, leaders will call on Pristina and Belgrade to implement all agreements reached within the dialogue framework and work to reduce tensions.<\/p>\n All countries in the region will be invited to find sustainable and final solutions to disagreements and bilateral issues rooted in the past.<\/p>\n EU-Western Balkans meetings have been periodic over the past two decades.<\/p>\n More precisely, such meetings have been organized since 2020 with the initiative of Croatia, which was leading the European Union at that time.<\/p>\n The EU also regularly invites representatives of these countries to various ministerial-level meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders of member states of the European Union will call on all Western Balkan countries to impose sanctions against Russia and work to prevent the circumvention of restrictive measures imposed by Brussels against Moscow following the start of the war against Ukraine. \u201cThe common vision of the future includes shared values and common responsibility. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":63655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[270,308,4213,300,150,243,151,284,301,893,285,326],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n