Political leaders in the Western Balkans do not have enough vision about the region’s integration into the EU, and they need to be more courageous, a representative of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Nicola Bertolini, stated in Belgrade on Thursday.
While opening the two-day conference “(Wrong) Perception of the European Union in the Western Balkans,” Bertolini, who is the chief of the Department for Cooperation in the EU Delegation in Belgrade, said that people in the Western Balkans believed in the process of EU enlargement, and that “the leaders have to be clearer and take more courageous steps” on the path to the EU.
Bertolini underscored the enormous difference in funding intended for members of the Union and for membership candidates. “When Serbia enters the EU, I hope that will be in five years, but don’t take my word for it, it will be getting ten times more funding (from the Union) than it is getting nowadays,” Bertolini said.
Bertolini, who joined the EU Delegation to Serbia in September, stated that “it is not very clear” which side the citizens of Serbia wished to lean towards, unlike the people in other countries of the region.
“We see the differences in the region’s countries. In Serbia, around 50% of the people are in favour of the EU, and it is not very clear where the people want to go. In other countries of the region, support for EU membership is much greater,” Bertolini added.
