Italian PM defends European Union expansion to the Western Balkans should be a priority

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday that enlargement of the European Union (EU) to six countries in the Western Balkans should be a “priority”, citing the region as strategic to Italy’s interests.

“The EU urgently needs to develop a new vision for this region,” Meloni said in a video message released at the opening of a conference in Trieste, which aims to promote the role of Italy in the region, which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia. , Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia.

“Europe has a great responsibility towards the Balkans and should strive to reaffirm the region’s sense of belonging to our world and our values,” the Italian Prime Minister added, stressing that the war in Ukraine has placed Europe “in the face of inevitable strategic options.” “. “.

Assuring that the region is of “strategic importance for Italy’s national interests,” Meloni stressed that Italy “will continue to be at the forefront of the struggle so that the process of European integration of the Western Balkans has greater momentum and determination.”

According to him, for Italy “this is a matter of absolute importance”, which affects national security, therefore “the security and growth of all the peoples of the Western Balkans are of fundamental importance” and must be decided in the European context.

“That is why we are fighting for regional integration, in the process of accession to the European Union of all the states of the region, and we believe that supporting stabilization and full European integration means working for cooperation in the fight against corruption, in the fight against human trafficking. , in managing and curbing illegal migration flows, as well as in preventing and combating radicalism in all its forms,” he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tagiani also said that the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union would create “the necessary stability, especially since migration flows from Turkey pass through the region and it is important to prevent illegal immigration.”

He added that stability “also means economic growth and business opportunities” for Italians and Europeans in the region.

Therefore, according to the minister, the Western Balkans “should become part of the European market” and the accession processes should be accelerated.

The conference “Italy and the Western Balkans: Growth and Integration” began on Tuesday with speeches by Meloni and the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation at the Trieste Convention Center, near the border with Slovenia.

The purpose of this two-day meeting is to “promote the role of Italy in the Western Balkans, the foreign policy priority of the new government and the process of European integration of these countries.”

The conference will be attended by European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, who will analyze the situation in the region, its capabilities and the role of the region’s production and economic system.

Surrounded by the EU on all sides, the Western Balkans region is in various stages of its accession process, and last December Albania hosted the first EU summit in a country in the region.

Arranged to reiterate the importance of expanding the bloc to the region in the context of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, the summit concluded with the signing of the Declaration of Tirana, in which the 27 “reaffirmed their full and unequivocal commitment to the accession of the Western Balkans to the EU and calls for an accelerated accession process.”

However, EU Member States stressed the need for the six countries to undertake “credible reforms” in order to meet the accession criteria.