Kos: ‘The Western Balkan countries should have been integrated in time’

Brussels – “Never before has enlargement been so much about security. It makes us realize the past mistakes, namely not integrating the Western Balkans countries in time.” The European Commission’s ‘mea culpa’ on the EU accession process comes from Marta Kos, Commissioner for Enlargement, who contextualized the expansion of the twelve-star club to the war in Ukraine during the European Defense and Security Summit. Emphasizing renewed geopolitical uncertainties, Kos hints that Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia – candidate countries in the region- could have become members sooner, in a clear call to accelerate.