EU Chief Warns of Balkan Wars If Bloc Neglects Accession Process

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged to speed up the EU inclusion of the Balkan countries because of the threat of war. The European Union should be serious about accession talks with western Balkan countries or risks reigniting hostilities, said President Jean-Claude Juncker, reports Bloomberg. The bloc should consider “the idea of pre-accession” for candidate countries to give them hope and help them improve their economies before entry, Juncker said. “If we rob the western Balkan states of their accession perspective, if in this highly complex European area the impression emerges that we’re not serious about that perspective, we will later, or rather sooner, again experience what we had in the Balkans in the 1990s”, Juncker said. He reminded that only two former Yugoslav states, Slovenia and Croatia, have joined the EU. Source: BigMir