{"id":415017,"date":"2024-12-18T20:27:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T19:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/12\/18\/balcani-occidentali-patto-immigrazione-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T14:29:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T13:29:58","slug":"eu-wants-western-balkans-aligned-on-returns-and-immigration-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/12\/18\/eu-wants-western-balkans-aligned-on-returns-and-immigration-pact\/","title":{"rendered":"EU wants Western Balkans aligned on returns and immigration pact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The EU’s commitment to the countries of the\u00a0Western Balkans<\/strong> remains to “bring” the states closer to the EU “already during the enlargement process.”<\/span><\/span> A political concession to which, however, EU leaders now demand in exchange\u00a0a whole new commitment to “align with the new pact on immigration<\/strong>” signed in May, and that will come into\u00a0force in June 2026. It\u00a0is the main change contained in the final declaration of the EU-Western Balkans summit<\/a>. A passage in the 17-page document marks a new pressure to put up a united front against migration flows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The new immigration pact<\/a> strengthens the responsibility of countries with the EU’s external border by opening up to an easier regime of detaining migrants at the borders.\u00a0Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia<\/strong>\u00a0are being asked to think, from the outset,\u00a0as if they were\u00a0EU member states. It is particularly relevant for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, which are\u00a0on\u00a0the Adriatic Sea\u00a0and will be responsible for portions of the EU’s external borders in the future.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>
Family photo of the EU-Western Balkan summit [Bruselles, December 18,\u00a02024. Photo: European Council]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hence,\u00a0the request also to “work <\/strong>for returns from the Western Balkans to the countries of origin.”\u00a0<\/strong>EU leaders\u00a0insist on the repatriation policy and that external dimension of migration, which brings everyone around the table in agreement, starting with Italy and Giorgia Meloni’s government.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, the summit is also an opportunity to ask the Western Balkan\u00a0to work harder in an anti-Russian direction, especially for energy supplies. The six EU candidate countries are being asked to stop sourcing from Gazprom,\u00a0reducing the revenues to finance the war against Ukraine. “The <\/strong>Western Balkan partners should use the EU mechanism for joint purchases of natural gas<\/strong> and liquefied natural gas (LNG)\u00a0to reduce their dependence on Russian gas.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The request made at the summit with leaders of countries in the region, who make commitment. Reiterates pledge of gradual integration for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":415011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707,25727],"tags":[26453,25866,27334,25806,26205,29324,29147,25803,25789,26030],"class_list":["post-415017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","category-in-the-spotlight","tag-cooperation-en","tag-energy-en","tag-enlargement","tag-gas-and-2","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-new-pact-immigration-and-asylum-en","tag-rimpatri-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-ukrainian-en-2","tag-western-balkans-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415017"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415066,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415017\/revisions\/415066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}