It’s time for Western Balkans to make ‘rapid progress’ toward EU membership: Special representative

BELGRADE, Serbia

It is time for Western Balkan countries to make “rapid progress" toward EU membership, an EU special representative said.

“The urgency of including new members in the Union underscored by the war in Ukraine is not met with enthusiasm, but rather with stagnation and backsliding in the region. This has to change quickly as the time for EU integration is now,” Miroslav Lajcak said Sunday evening at the To Be Secure Forum held in Montenegro.

At the panel focused on the future of the Western Balkans, Lajcak emphasized that each of the six countries of the region faces unique challenges.

He also met with Montenegro’s Prime Minister-designate Milojko Spajic.

Montenegro needs a stable pro-European government coalition, which ensures to seize the current pro-enlargement momentum, the EU representative said.

Montenegro has so far failed to form a new government since the snap general elections held in the country on June 11.