EU Backs Gradual Western Balkans Integration as Ukraine Accession Reshapes Enlargement Calendar
By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
The European Union's Foreign Affairs Council met in Brussels on May 11 and approved European Peace Facility support measures for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, while discussing options for strengthening Montenegro's resilience against hybrid threats ahead of its EU accession target of 2028. The session also brought Western Balkan foreign ministers into a joint discussion on countering foreign information manipulation and EU enlargement, underscoring how deeply the region's security and membership tracks have converged.
The Council meeting came as the EU faces growing pressure to clarify what Ukraine's accelerated accession path means for countries in the Western Balkans that applied for membership years, in some cases decades, earlier. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has said Montenegro could become the 28th EU member state by 2028 and Albania the 29th by 2029, making them the near-term benchmarks for a region where most candidates have watched Ukraine move faster despite joining the queue far later.
Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel put the tension plainly at recent enlargement discussions, warning that Western Balkan countries should not be made to depend on Ukraine's accession timeline. "We cannot say that Montenegro and other candidate countries must depend on Ukraine's accession. If the criteria are met, Montenegro must be able to join," he said.
The EU's response has been to deepen what it calls gradual integration, a framework introduced in its 2020 enlargement methodology that allows candidate countries to phase into specific EU programmes and policies before formal accession. The six-billion-euro Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, launched in 2023, is the main financial instrument, alongside phased access to the Roam Like at Home telecommunications zone, the SEPA payments area and parts of the EU energy market. The European Commission's 2025 Enlargement Package described gradual integration as a way of "bringing concrete benefits for citizens" before accession is completed.
The next high-level test of that framework comes on June 1, when the EU-Western Balkans Summit convenes in Podgorica. European Council President António Costa announced the date in October 2025, calling Montenegro's progress "impressive." The summit will be the first held in the region itself rather than in Brussels, a symbolic signal of the EU's intent to keep the Western Balkans on an active rather than managed track.
Kosovo remains the most structurally constrained case. It applied for EU membership in December 2022 and is classified as a potential candidate, but five EU member states, Kıbrıs, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain, do not recognise its independence, blocking the formal opening of accession negotiations. Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Glauk Konjufca has called for candidate status, describing EU enlargement as "a strategic necessity" and saying the questionnaire should be issued. That request is unlikely to advance while recognition remains divided.
The security dimension of the Western Balkans file has been moving in parallel. In April, the chairs of the NATO and EU Military Committees conducted a joint visit to Pristina and Sarajevo, treating Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single security front rather than two separate files. Bosphorus News covered the strategic logic of that visit and Türkiye's role at the operational core of the region's NATO presence here. KFOR is currently commanded by Turkish Major General Özkan Ulutaş, placing Ankara directly inside the region's security architecture at the same moment Türkiye is pressing Brussels for inclusion in EU defence initiatives and Customs Union modernisation.
Serbia sits apart from the rest. Its accession negotiations have stalled, its government has resisted democratic accountability demands following the Novi Sad railway disaster protests, and its president met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on May 9 as part of Republika Srpska's separate engagement with Moscow. Bosnia and Herzegovina's general elections are set for October 4, 2026, adding a political variable to an already fragmented institutional landscape.
Sources: Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 8, 2026, on EU Foreign Affairs Council agenda. EU Council press release on Western Balkans, December 17, 2024. European Commission 2025 Enlargement Package, November 4, 2025. EUNews.it, May 11, 2026. Pravda Bosnia, May 9, 2026. New Union Post on 2026 EU-Western Balkans Summit.