Balkans summit in Paris: Migration, security, EU’s future

The focus of the initiative is on Balkan countries that are not yet European Union members: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Hollande said Britain’s vote to leave the European Union will not affect the bloc’s agreements with Balkan states.

“We are working on a daily basis with each and every one (of the Western Balkan countries) to make steps towards the European integration of the Western Balkans”, Mogherini said. “They will be respected”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed Hollande.

The EU Commissioner also acknowledged that the EU has just entered a hard phase, but added that the prospect of EU membership continues to drive transformation and anchor stability in the countries of Southeast Europe.

“We have a lot of work and efforts before us, and obligations”.

During the summit, Hahn also tweeted that the summit was already bearing results, announcing that Croatia, which had opposed the start of Serbia’s European Union acession talks, had given its consent for the opening of chapters 23 and 24 in the Serbian talks, dealing with the rule of law, the judiciary and human rights. A handful of violent extremists are known to have mixed in with the more than 1 million migrants crossing into Europe a year ago, including through the Balkans. Migration flow and an extremism are linked now, and Balkans summit will try to find a solution how to prevent extremists from sneaking in with migrants who are moving west across Europe.

Serbia’s prime minister Aleksandar Vucic described the United Kingdom decision “as the biggest political natural disaster since the fall of the Berlin wall”, reports the Associated Press.

Merkel told Balkan leaders “nothing has changed”, two diplomats quoted her as saying.

Merkel and Hollande met Austria’s chancellor, Italy’s finance minister and leaders of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission.