By Genc Mlloja
Senior Diplomatic Editor
During these days one of the highlights of the European political scene has been the Zagreb Summit, a virtual event organized by the EU Presidency of Croatia and chaired by European Council President Charles Michel, which was held on May 6 with the participation of 27 member states of the Union and the highest state and government leaders of the six countries of the Western Balkans.
A 20-point final declaration adopted by the EU-Western Balkans Summit sealed the unequivocal support of the Union for the Western Balkans’ European perspective, while the WB partners reiterated their commitment to the European perspective as their firm strategic choice.
A quick follow up of its deliberations and meetings on the sidelines shows that participants echoed their different opinions on it and its final document. But the general mood on what the event produced was given voice in the best diplomatic way by the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković in his comment on the Declaration before it was adopted. “We made a very solid document given the circumstances. The fact that the meeting is happening is already a strong political signal,” he said.
In the press conference after the Summit on Wednesday (May 6), Mr. Plenković said: “We have managed, thanks to our joint efforts, to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. In our view, these decisions were long overdue. We have also managed to adopt new methodology which will not only help Serbia and Montenegro, which are already negotiating, but also North Macedonia and Albania.”
After the curtain of the Summit fell all the participants have the full right to make their assessments putting face to face their expectations and the results.
A ‘warning’ had been in the air well before the start of Summit: the text of the Declaration did not have any specific reference about enlargement and no mention was made of the EU decision to open Union’s accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia taken in mid March this year.
Why? What has promoted the ‘big guns’ of the Union to leave the aspirant countries without a date? There are many suppositions but for the moment it is enough to remember that some EU countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and, to a certain extent, Germany, continue to be rather skeptical of further enlargement. This was said by HINA news agency before the event quoting diplomatic sources.
However Zagreb’s top diplomat Goran Grlić Radman did not hide the Croatian side of the truth revealing that the proposed Declaration could have been more strongly phrased, but, as he said, it reflects the realistic state of affairs and that it is a great success of Croatian Presidency.
And undoubtedly Croatia deserves credit for its unwavering support and solidarity to the WB countries and the effort to take forward the perspective of enlargement of the Union towards the region even in the current circumstances of the horrible coronavirus crisis which for the sake of the truth put the EU in an unprecedented disorder at its outbreak. The ‘power of fear’ was so strong being felt even by the ‘big guns’ of the Union which focused on their houses…
But Foreign Minister of North Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov was attentive enough to thank Croatia for the progress his country had made during its Presidency in an interview for N1 on Wednesday. Of course he was courageous enough to speak out on the spot saying that it would have been better to include the word “enlargement” in the Declaration. And he went further calling on Brussels to be more specific on the timeframe of the opening of the accession talks. “North Macedonia expects the negotiating framework to be drafted by the Commission by the beginning of June,” he said firmly.
It will take some time to collect comprehensive opinions of specific WB countries on the impact of the Zagreb Summit and this is something natural but both EU and WB officials did not spare words of appreciation for Croatia which besides the pandemic was also n hit by a strong earthquake.
As the curtain of the Zagreb Summit has fallen what has surprised me is the failure to find an official comment by official Tirana on the event which as it was formally announced by the organizers of the Summit was represented by the goverment head of this country Edi Rama.
I would like to recall that the Croatian Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlic-Radman paid a visit to Albania on March 2, 2020, to convey, on behalf of Croatia in its capacity of Presidency of the Council of the EU, strong support for the continuation of the integration path of Albania into the EU.
“The decision to open EU negotiations with Albania was one of the priorities of Croatia’s presidency of the Council of the EU. The Croatian Government is pleased that it has now been fulfilled. This decision is a result of an intense political and diplomatic effort by the Croatian Government, which remained persistent in pursuit of that goal,” the Croatian Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlic-Radman told me in an exclusive interview published in Albanian Daily News on April 27 this year. He also said that the visit to Tirana had a bilateral dimension. “It was an opportunity to re-emphasise our traditionally strong ties and excellent relations. Our bilateral relations were elevated to a strategic level following Prime Ministers Plenkovic and Rama’s signing of the Statement on the Strategic Partnership in December 2018 in Zagreb,” Croatian FM Gordan Grlic-Radman said.
Turning to Albania’s participation and its missing reaction on Zagreb Summit the only comment on May 7, a day after the event, was that of acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj who stated in a televised interview that due to the pandemic that has hit the world over there is no fixed date for the first roundtable EU-Albania. “I can’t speak about specific dates due to two factors. First, we are in a situation with many unknowns due to pandemic. In the case of Albania, it also depends on the dynamics of the implementation of reforms,” Minister Cakaj said. But there was no specific word on the Summit, and Albania’s concrete participation in such an important event with Croatia as the main ‘conductor’.
Can the fresh delay to fix a date for the start of the accession talks with the Union be behind the blackout of Albanian authorities on what happened in the Zagreb Summit? If yes, I think that it’s an undiplomatic reaction, and in particular an underserved behavior towards Croatia which like few host countries of events of such a dimension held in an unprecedented situation was fair enough to unveil before the Summit that it? had made a very solid document given the circumstances. A diplomatic source asked by Albanian Daily News on this was reluctant to make any comment.
However, in any case, it’s Albanians who would have been more interested than anyone else to learn what really happened in the frame of the Zagreb Summit directly from their participating officials because they have never missed such occasions before to be on the forefront line of such events! (ADN)
