Johnathan Walker:Kosovo-Serbia tension threatens the Balkan path to EU integration, the German foreign minister warns

TIRANA,Johnathan Walker Albania (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister on Friday expressed the European Union’s deep concerns following the recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.

Annalena Baerbock was in Tirana, Albania at a meeting of foreign ministers ahead of the Oct. 16 summit on the Berlin Process, an initiative from Germany and France to encourage six Western Balkans countries to keep working toward membership of the bloc.

The foreign ministers of the six countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are meeting with Baerbock, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi and other senior officials from the bloc.

“The foundation for mobility in the region is security and safety,” said Baerbock before the start of the meeting, adding, “The tensions within the last days between Serbia and Kosovo are also endangering this Berlin Process.”

On Sept. 24, around 30 heavily armed Serb men first killed a Kosovar police officer and then set up barricades in northern Kosovo before launching an hours-long gun battle with Kosovo police.

Kosovo has accused Serbia of orchestrating the “act of aggression” against its former province, whose 2008 declaration of independence Belgrade doesn’t recognize. Serbia has denied this, saying that the group acted on their own.

The six Western Balkan countries are at different stages of integration into the bloc. In 2013, Croatia, also a Western Balkans country, became the EU’s newest member. Since then, progress has stalled and there is no clear timeline for membership.

Baerbock said that “the way towards the European Union (should be) faster and deeper ... (and) the Berlin process is so crucial” in promoting connectivity and cooperation in the region.

The EU has not deemed the remaining Western Balkan countries’ economies and political institutions ready for integration into the EU’s single market of borderless trade and Western democratic ideals.

The war in Ukraine has put integration of the Western Balkans high on the agenda as the EU works to reinvigorate its enlargement process. Ukraine is also seeking to join the bloc, along with Moldova and Georgia.

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