![adicerimagic's tweet photo. This year’s 🇪🇺–Western Balkans Summit in 🇲🇪’s Tivat felt different.
Not only because of the beauty of the Bay of Kotor, but because 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 arrived with a jointly drafted non-paper on the future of 🇪🇺–Western Balkans relations.
This was not unexpected.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, 🇩🇪 Chancellor #Merz signalled his growing frustration with the 🇪🇺’s approach to the region. He also hinted that new ideas for reinvigorating enlargement and deepening integration with the Western Balkans were under discussion.
In Tivat, those ideas were put on the table.
Journalists travelling with Merz were briefed on two priorities: “reining in [🇷🇸’s] President Vučić” and “selling fast access to the 🇪🇺 Single Market.” The two were closely linked.
The offer to 🇷🇸 was a restart of 🇪🇺 accession talks frozen since December 2021.
The first step would be opening Cluster 3, potentially within weeks. According to von der Leyen and Costa, this requires results on judicial reform (Venice Commission recommendations), electoral reform (OSCE/ODIHR recommendations), media freedom, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Unlike in the past, 🇫🇷🇩🇪 now appear aligned: if the Commission recommends opening Cluster 3, both would support it.
That would allow 🇷🇸 to move towards opening the remaining three clusters and eventually meeting interim benchmarks on the judiciary, corruption, and organised crime, paving the way for the closing of chapters. In other words, 🇷🇸 would then catch up with where 🇦🇱 is today.
Yet none of these conditions are new. Why would Belgrade now do what it has long refused to do?
Because Merz publicly criticised 🇷🇸’s “balancing policy” between 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳 and 🇪🇺 and said 🇷🇸 must decide where it sees its future?
As Germans would say: Jain.
For years, 🇷🇸’s calculation has been that the political costs of aligning with 🇪🇺 demands on 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳, 🇽🇰 and domestic reforms outweighed the uncertain reward of membership. Belgrade’s message was that 🇲🇪 and 🇦🇱 were naïve to trust a process that could still be blocked by a single 🇪🇺 capital. Vučić’s joint #FAZ op-ed with 🇦🇱 PM #Rama in February captured this view perfectly: full 🇪🇺 membership was not a credible offer, so full access to the Single Market and Schengen should be the minimum on offer.
The 🇫🇷🇩🇪 non-paper reads like an answer to that challenge. Its key innovation is that candidates implementing reforms should not have to wait indefinitely for the benefits. Even before membership, they could gain access to the Single Market and its four freedoms.
If accepted by other member states, 🇲🇪 could become the first candidate whose citizens and businesses enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market while waiting for its accession treaty to be agreed and ratified.
While the proposal does little for 🇽🇰, 🇧🇦 or 🇲🇰, will it be enough to change calculations in Belgrade, halt backsliding and unlock reforms?
That remains to be seen.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKTng90XgAEJH8L.jpg)
![adicerimagic's tweet photo. This year’s 🇪🇺–Western Balkans Summit in 🇲🇪’s Tivat felt different.
Not only because of the beauty of the Bay of Kotor, but because 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 arrived with a jointly drafted non-paper on the future of 🇪🇺–Western Balkans relations.
This was not unexpected.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, 🇩🇪 Chancellor #Merz signalled his growing frustration with the 🇪🇺’s approach to the region. He also hinted that new ideas for reinvigorating enlargement and deepening integration with the Western Balkans were under discussion.
In Tivat, those ideas were put on the table.
Journalists travelling with Merz were briefed on two priorities: “reining in [🇷🇸’s] President Vučić” and “selling fast access to the 🇪🇺 Single Market.” The two were closely linked.
The offer to 🇷🇸 was a restart of 🇪🇺 accession talks frozen since December 2021.
The first step would be opening Cluster 3, potentially within weeks. According to von der Leyen and Costa, this requires results on judicial reform (Venice Commission recommendations), electoral reform (OSCE/ODIHR recommendations), media freedom, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Unlike in the past, 🇫🇷🇩🇪 now appear aligned: if the Commission recommends opening Cluster 3, both would support it.
That would allow 🇷🇸 to move towards opening the remaining three clusters and eventually meeting interim benchmarks on the judiciary, corruption, and organised crime, paving the way for the closing of chapters. In other words, 🇷🇸 would then catch up with where 🇦🇱 is today.
Yet none of these conditions are new. Why would Belgrade now do what it has long refused to do?
Because Merz publicly criticised 🇷🇸’s “balancing policy” between 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳 and 🇪🇺 and said 🇷🇸 must decide where it sees its future?
As Germans would say: Jain.
For years, 🇷🇸’s calculation has been that the political costs of aligning with 🇪🇺 demands on 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳, 🇽🇰 and domestic reforms outweighed the uncertain reward of membership. Belgrade’s message was that 🇲🇪 and 🇦🇱 were naïve to trust a process that could still be blocked by a single 🇪🇺 capital. Vučić’s joint #FAZ op-ed with 🇦🇱 PM #Rama in February captured this view perfectly: full 🇪🇺 membership was not a credible offer, so full access to the Single Market and Schengen should be the minimum on offer.
The 🇫🇷🇩🇪 non-paper reads like an answer to that challenge. Its key innovation is that candidates implementing reforms should not have to wait indefinitely for the benefits. Even before membership, they could gain access to the Single Market and its four freedoms.
If accepted by other member states, 🇲🇪 could become the first candidate whose citizens and businesses enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market while waiting for its accession treaty to be agreed and ratified.
While the proposal does little for 🇽🇰, 🇧🇦 or 🇲🇰, will it be enough to change calculations in Belgrade, halt backsliding and unlock reforms?
That remains to be seen.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKTng90XUAAGn07.jpg)
![adicerimagic's tweet photo. This year’s 🇪🇺–Western Balkans Summit in 🇲🇪’s Tivat felt different.
Not only because of the beauty of the Bay of Kotor, but because 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 arrived with a jointly drafted non-paper on the future of 🇪🇺–Western Balkans relations.
This was not unexpected.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, 🇩🇪 Chancellor #Merz signalled his growing frustration with the 🇪🇺’s approach to the region. He also hinted that new ideas for reinvigorating enlargement and deepening integration with the Western Balkans were under discussion.
In Tivat, those ideas were put on the table.
Journalists travelling with Merz were briefed on two priorities: “reining in [🇷🇸’s] President Vučić” and “selling fast access to the 🇪🇺 Single Market.” The two were closely linked.
The offer to 🇷🇸 was a restart of 🇪🇺 accession talks frozen since December 2021.
The first step would be opening Cluster 3, potentially within weeks. According to von der Leyen and Costa, this requires results on judicial reform (Venice Commission recommendations), electoral reform (OSCE/ODIHR recommendations), media freedom, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Unlike in the past, 🇫🇷🇩🇪 now appear aligned: if the Commission recommends opening Cluster 3, both would support it.
That would allow 🇷🇸 to move towards opening the remaining three clusters and eventually meeting interim benchmarks on the judiciary, corruption, and organised crime, paving the way for the closing of chapters. In other words, 🇷🇸 would then catch up with where 🇦🇱 is today.
Yet none of these conditions are new. Why would Belgrade now do what it has long refused to do?
Because Merz publicly criticised 🇷🇸’s “balancing policy” between 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳 and 🇪🇺 and said 🇷🇸 must decide where it sees its future?
As Germans would say: Jain.
For years, 🇷🇸’s calculation has been that the political costs of aligning with 🇪🇺 demands on 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳, 🇽🇰 and domestic reforms outweighed the uncertain reward of membership. Belgrade’s message was that 🇲🇪 and 🇦🇱 were naïve to trust a process that could still be blocked by a single 🇪🇺 capital. Vučić’s joint #FAZ op-ed with 🇦🇱 PM #Rama in February captured this view perfectly: full 🇪🇺 membership was not a credible offer, so full access to the Single Market and Schengen should be the minimum on offer.
The 🇫🇷🇩🇪 non-paper reads like an answer to that challenge. Its key innovation is that candidates implementing reforms should not have to wait indefinitely for the benefits. Even before membership, they could gain access to the Single Market and its four freedoms.
If accepted by other member states, 🇲🇪 could become the first candidate whose citizens and businesses enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market while waiting for its accession treaty to be agreed and ratified.
While the proposal does little for 🇽🇰, 🇧🇦 or 🇲🇰, will it be enough to change calculations in Belgrade, halt backsliding and unlock reforms?
That remains to be seen.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKTng9zXYAAe3-y.jpg)
Olivia
Online
Joeri Maas
@joerimaas
My views | RT ≠ endorsement. Proud to work for @thijsreuten @gl_pvda . Formerly at EU BiH, OCSE BiH, ICC, STL, Dutch Ombudsman and ADC-ICTY.
Brussels, Belgium
Joined January 2012
1K Following
452 Followers
1.1K Posts
As the U.S. scales back its role in Europe, debates over NATO burden sharing are intensifying.
A new HCSS expert analysis by Rens van Dam examines whether fixed GDP targets are really the fairest way to distribute defence spending across Europe.
https://t.co/xkjPvbxjxs
Politico this morning: EU Council legal service confirms that the EU can curb trade with Israel's illegal settlements as a trade measure, with qualified majority.
This adds further pressure on EU Commission to act, removing its excuse.
Aligns with what experts have said⏭️
This year’s 🇪🇺–Western Balkans Summit in 🇲🇪’s Tivat felt different.
Not only because of the beauty of the Bay of Kotor, but because 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 arrived with a jointly drafted non-paper on the future of 🇪🇺–Western Balkans relations.
This was not unexpected.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, 🇩🇪 Chancellor #Merz signalled his growing frustration with the 🇪🇺’s approach to the region. He also hinted that new ideas for reinvigorating enlargement and deepening integration with the Western Balkans were under discussion.
In Tivat, those ideas were put on the table.
Journalists travelling with Merz were briefed on two priorities: “reining in [🇷🇸’s] President Vučić” and “selling fast access to the 🇪🇺 Single Market.” The two were closely linked.
The offer to 🇷🇸 was a restart of 🇪🇺 accession talks frozen since December 2021.
The first step would be opening Cluster 3, potentially within weeks. According to von der Leyen and Costa, this requires results on judicial reform (Venice Commission recommendations), electoral reform (OSCE/ODIHR recommendations), media freedom, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Unlike in the past, 🇫🇷🇩🇪 now appear aligned: if the Commission recommends opening Cluster 3, both would support it.
That would allow 🇷🇸 to move towards opening the remaining three clusters and eventually meeting interim benchmarks on the judiciary, corruption, and organised crime, paving the way for the closing of chapters. In other words, 🇷🇸 would then catch up with where 🇦🇱 is today.
Yet none of these conditions are new. Why would Belgrade now do what it has long refused to do?
Because Merz publicly criticised 🇷🇸’s “balancing policy” between 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳 and 🇪🇺 and said 🇷🇸 must decide where it sees its future?
As Germans would say: Jain.
For years, 🇷🇸’s calculation has been that the political costs of aligning with 🇪🇺 demands on 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳, 🇽🇰 and domestic reforms outweighed the uncertain reward of membership. Belgrade’s message was that 🇲🇪 and 🇦🇱 were naïve to trust a process that could still be blocked by a single 🇪🇺 capital. Vučić’s joint #FAZ op-ed with 🇦🇱 PM #Rama in February captured this view perfectly: full 🇪🇺 membership was not a credible offer, so full access to the Single Market and Schengen should be the minimum on offer.
The 🇫🇷🇩🇪 non-paper reads like an answer to that challenge. Its key innovation is that candidates implementing reforms should not have to wait indefinitely for the benefits. Even before membership, they could gain access to the Single Market and its four freedoms.
If accepted by other member states, 🇲🇪 could become the first candidate whose citizens and businesses enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market while waiting for its accession treaty to be agreed and ratified.
While the proposal does little for 🇽🇰, 🇧🇦 or 🇲🇰, will it be enough to change calculations in Belgrade, halt backsliding and unlock reforms?
That remains to be seen.
![adicerimagic's tweet photo. This year’s 🇪🇺–Western Balkans Summit in 🇲🇪’s Tivat felt different.
Not only because of the beauty of the Bay of Kotor, but because 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 arrived with a jointly drafted non-paper on the future of 🇪🇺–Western Balkans relations.
This was not unexpected.
At the Munich Security Conference in February, 🇩🇪 Chancellor #Merz signalled his growing frustration with the 🇪🇺’s approach to the region. He also hinted that new ideas for reinvigorating enlargement and deepening integration with the Western Balkans were under discussion.
In Tivat, those ideas were put on the table.
Journalists travelling with Merz were briefed on two priorities: “reining in [🇷🇸’s] President Vučić” and “selling fast access to the 🇪🇺 Single Market.” The two were closely linked.
The offer to 🇷🇸 was a restart of 🇪🇺 accession talks frozen since December 2021.
The first step would be opening Cluster 3, potentially within weeks. According to von der Leyen and Costa, this requires results on judicial reform (Venice Commission recommendations), electoral reform (OSCE/ODIHR recommendations), media freedom, and alignment with EU foreign policy. Unlike in the past, 🇫🇷🇩🇪 now appear aligned: if the Commission recommends opening Cluster 3, both would support it.
That would allow 🇷🇸 to move towards opening the remaining three clusters and eventually meeting interim benchmarks on the judiciary, corruption, and organised crime, paving the way for the closing of chapters. In other words, 🇷🇸 would then catch up with where 🇦🇱 is today.
Yet none of these conditions are new. Why would Belgrade now do what it has long refused to do?
Because Merz publicly criticised 🇷🇸’s “balancing policy” between 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳 and 🇪🇺 and said 🇷🇸 must decide where it sees its future?
As Germans would say: Jain.
For years, 🇷🇸’s calculation has been that the political costs of aligning with 🇪🇺 demands on 🇷🇺, 🇨🇳, 🇽🇰 and domestic reforms outweighed the uncertain reward of membership. Belgrade’s message was that 🇲🇪 and 🇦🇱 were naïve to trust a process that could still be blocked by a single 🇪🇺 capital. Vučić’s joint #FAZ op-ed with 🇦🇱 PM #Rama in February captured this view perfectly: full 🇪🇺 membership was not a credible offer, so full access to the Single Market and Schengen should be the minimum on offer.
The 🇫🇷🇩🇪 non-paper reads like an answer to that challenge. Its key innovation is that candidates implementing reforms should not have to wait indefinitely for the benefits. Even before membership, they could gain access to the Single Market and its four freedoms.
If accepted by other member states, 🇲🇪 could become the first candidate whose citizens and businesses enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market while waiting for its accession treaty to be agreed and ratified.
While the proposal does little for 🇽🇰, 🇧🇦 or 🇲🇰, will it be enough to change calculations in Belgrade, halt backsliding and unlock reforms?
That remains to be seen.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKTng97XgAAjTck.jpg)
The moment of one of today’s Russian strikes on Kyiv.
I can see that fewer and fewer people are reading news from Ukraine. I understand that on a Sunday morning, people don’t want to read about war. They want to sleep a little longer, drink good coffee, and sit in the sun. I understand that. The algorithms on X limit content about war, destruction, and suffering. You have to make an effort to even see this information.
All of this is understandable on a human level. But unfortunately, if you remove Putin and the war from your information feed, they do not disappear from reality.
Putin is a sadist and a maniac. He is a threat to all of humanity.
There needs to be active resistance. News from Ukraine needs to be shared. People need to keep their focus.
Despite a sleepless night, I’m still here. And I’m grateful to everyone who continues to stand with us.
One day, we’ll drink morning coffee together in a beautiful, peaceful Kyiv.
Who to follow
Johann Sattler
@josattler
EU Ambassador to Montenegro, former EU Ambassador/EUSR in Bosnia and Herzegovina & former Austrian Ambassador to Albania. Balkans aficionado. #EUDiplomacy
Adi Ćerimagić 
@adicerimagic
Senior Analyst @ESI_eu
EU | Western Balkans
Boards: @iipvienna | @bezbednost_org |@kcsfoundation
Anesa Omanović
@iamanesa
Bjelave, 071| feminist | Tweets about politics, W.Balkans & probably some cats and dogs.
The most striking aspect of the 🇺🇸 State Department’s seven-page report to Congress on the #Trump #administration’s policy to “Promote Regional Stability and Prosperity in the #Western #Balkans” is not what it says, but what it omits: any reference to supporting 🇪🇺 or #NATO integration in the region, or even acknowledging their relevance.
The 🇪🇺 appears, at best, as a non-actor. At worst, as a regulatory competitor and obstacle.
The sections on economic policy and investment make this especially clear: for this 🇺🇸 administration, the 🇪🇺’s own strategy, policies and activities in the Western #Balkans appear irrelevant.
The "Board of Peace" can't even run a sober, professional twitter account.
🇳🇱 Join us:
🗓️ Thursday, May 21
⏰ · 5:00 PM ·
📍Amare (Studio), Spuiplein 150, 2511 DG Den Haag, Netherlands
🔗 Tickets: https://t.co/3WiB6caT62
A single Commissioner - rightly - demands accountability and respect for IHL. But please don’t pretend the EU is demanding anything.
Amid continued vandalism, thefts and arson, Israeli settlers demolished an EU-funded school in the West Bank.
Over 40 children lost their right to education. Their community was forced to flee, fearing for their lives.
The EU demands accountability and respect for IHL.
The former head of the Mossad is comparing the actions of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to Nazis in the Holocaust.
If someone said that in the West they'd be accused of antisemitism under the IHRA definition.
At UN Security Council mtg on the Strait of Hormuz, US Amb Waltz to UN says, "The United Nations was built for times like this"
[INTERVIEW] "Too many Member States keep using the argument that the EU first needs internal reform. And my response is very simple: if you use that argument, then you are also obliged to work on those reforms", stated @thijsreuten.
https://t.co/OeAMhYLagl
The European Union-Israel Association Agreement is conditioned on respect for human rights, but despite Israel's genocide in Gaza, apartheid in occupied Palestinian territory, and war crimes in Iran and Lebanon, the EU still hasn't suspended the accord. https://t.co/I1CT7CoTRK
🙌Applications are now open for the EU Diplomatic Programme for the Enlargement Region!
Funded by @eu_enlargement_, this 5-month training brings together diplomats & officials from the enlargement region to deepen their knowledge of EU affairs!
Apply now👉https://t.co/AaxTcnAjly
Everyone should read what the Israeli military did to journalist Amal Khalil today in this minute-by-minute account as the international community watched in horror. First the text messages threatening her then trapping her and a photographer in a house then bombing them then firing on international rescue crews, all with the world watching in real time. There are no words left for the horrors that U.S. political leaders are enabling.
Worst aspect re 🇪🇺🇮🇱🇮🇱 Association Agreement debate: this is not about sanctions, embargo, accountability, intervention, or any serious repercussions for widespread IHL violations.
Taking away preferential trade and access to some EU programmes should be a minimum first step.
🧵 Following yet another failure to adopt any measure to hold Israel to account, @kajakallas repeats, with a straight face, that "no one does more for Palestine", and rejects accusations of double standards
Explaining why she's wrong feels surreal, but here you go ⤵️
Quelle honte. La décision de l’Union Europeenne de maintenir son accord commercial avec Israël est honteuse et lache. Elle témoigne d’un mépris flagrant pour la vie des civils, notamment dans les Territoires palestiniens occupés et au Liban.
Un million de personnes en Europe, plus de 75 ONG, près de 400 anciens diplomates, des experts de l’ONU ainsi que la Belgique, l’Irlande, la Slovénie et l’Espagne ont tous appelé à la suspension immédiate de cet accord.
Une fois de plus, ces appels ont été ignorés, l’Allemagne et l’Italie jouant un rôle déterminant dans le blocage de cette suspension.
Cet épisode restera comme un nouveau chapitre honteux de l’un des moments les plus déplorables de l’histoire de l’UE.
Het is moreel en juridisch onhoudbaar dat de Europese Unie blijft vasthouden aan handelssamenwerking terwijl Israël keer op keer het internationaal recht blijft schenden. Hoe vaak ga je hetzelfde doen, en een andere uitkomst verwachten?
JUST IN: In a statement signed by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land confirms attacks by the IDF on Christians are not isolated incidents but many.
He expressed its "profound indignation and unreserved condemnation of the desecration of a representation of Jesus Crucified by an Israeli soldier in a Lebanese village."
"This act constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith and adds to other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon."
🚨🚨🚨 Just in: Volodymyr Zelenskyy announces that the Druzhba pipeline has been repaired.
"Ukraine has completed repair work on the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline that was damaged by a Russian strike. The pipeline can resume operation."
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