The EU recognized this hard work by blocking the start of membership negotiations for a state, #Macedonia, that has undertaken more credible reforms in the last yr than @avucic’s #Serbia has during his whole tenure. And yet Belgrade keeps opening chapters... #WBSummitLondon
Here’s what @FedericaMog should acknowledge: by blocking the start of negotiations w Albania & Macedonia while continuing them w the illiberal regime in Serbia the EU confirmed that local elites are better off making themselves a problem rather than a partner. #WBSummitLondon
Brussels has always been afraid of confronting bad-faith actors — see Vucic, Dodik, Gruevski, Covic — allowing instead the tail to wag the dog, and then punishing actual attempts at progress as an inane show of strength. No one fears the EU, in short, not even in the Balkans.
And w/o credible deterrence, w/o credible ability to punish or marginalize bad-faith actors, you just end up w pointless bureaucracy, a smokescreen of “progress” to obscure the lack of political will. That’s the EU’s Balkan policy in a nutshell. #WBSummitLondon
