Speaking at a seminar on “Re-Energizing the European Perspective of the Western Balkans” organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs, the HR/EUSR Valentin Inzko said that positive results are possible when the EU requirement is firm and the benefit to citizens is clear. “A significant body of legislative and administrative reorganisation was accomplished at considerable speed – after years of delay – when it became clear that if the parties in government continued to block visa-free travel they would face an unsustainable level of popular discontent.” He said the visa issue illustrates the connection between reforms, benefits and EU openness.
The HR/EUSR said the increasingly positive disposition of countries in the region has helped to “create an atmosphere in which things that might have seemed impossible just two or three years ago are now possible. And this is exactly why re-energizing the integration process is not only desirable, it is also extremely urgent – because we now have a window of opportunity, and that window will not remain open indefinitely.”