Western Balkans to join EU by 2025 – Juncker

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told Western Balkan countries that he sees 2025 as the date when any of them could join the European Union provided they worked to meet the criteria for membership. According to EU strategy, Montenegro and Serbia are the closest to joining the bloc, as they’ve already started accession talks, but Albania and Macedonia could follow soon. Only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo do not have EU candidate status. “Let’s be clear: 2025 is not a promise, not a prescriptive date but a credible perspective - an encouragement to continue reforms,” Juncker said during his visit to Belgrade. There still are issues, that need to be solved in order to enlarge the bloc. The main one is the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, whose 2008 declaration of independence following a 1998-99 war Belgrade does not recognize. “We need a compromise or we will continue to live in the past,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said. Juncker said the EU is seeking a "legally-binding" agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, but that the scope of the deal is up to the two nations. The EU is helping out in the talks on normalizing ties between the two. Earlier this month, the EU executive announced six flagship initiatives to support the transformation efforts of the Western Balkans to strengthen the rule of law, cooperate on security and migration through joint investigating teams and the European Border and coast guard. This strategy is treated as a roadmap for the six Western Balkan states to join the EU.