Mitsotakis urges EU to clarify accession prospects of Western Balkan countries

The EU needs to speed up the debate on European strategic autonomy and to make clear commitments on the accession prospects of western Balkan countries, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday.

Speaking from Slovenia on Tuesday upon his arrival at the European People’s Party conference, the premier underlined that it has been 18 years since the EU-Western Balkans Summit held in Thessaloniki in 2003, which he said “opened the European gates to western Balkan countries for the first time.”

“Time is running out,” he underlined, “and if the European Union is absent from this region, there is no doubt that others will rush to fill the void.”

Mitsotakis is in Slovenia also to attend the informal European Council meeting and the EU-Western Balkans summit taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, in Brdo.

Among other things, he will also brief his European counterparts on the Greek-French defence agreement recently signed in Paris.

[AMNA]