Greece Plans to 'Fix Dates' for Balkan EU Accession

The target dates would be announced by a special summit of EU and Balkan state leaders that Athens is planning to boost the enlargement process, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in Brussels on Monday.

Diplomats in Brussels, however, are sceptical about the initiative, especially considering the EU's resistance to setting specific dates for accession and other major steps.

When Greece presided over the EU in 2003, it hosted a significant summit in Thessaloniki dedicated to Balkan-EU integration. The meeting identified a number of measures to facilitate the integration process, including visa liberalisation, which became has become a reality for all the Balkan states except Kosovo.

Now Athens wants to recharge the enlargement process in an "active and positively aggressive" manner, said Mr Droutsas, adding that a summit declaration should set specific, ambitious and realistic targets.

"This will be the new catalyst for change and progress," he said. "It will be the incentive for reforms and a basis for assessing governments in the region. It will be a vital commitment from Europe."

Athens also wants to set up special preparatory groups and alliances between member states and Balkan states to develop closer relations and help speed up EU integration.

"We can't wait for things to happen by themselves," said Droutsas.

The idea, however, runs counter to official EU policy, which prioritises readiness over fixed dates.

There was no official EU reaction to the Greek initiative for 2014 but numerous diplomats from other member states privately voiced strong doubts about it. Some said Greece was contradicting itself.

"They claim to support the fast membership of Balkan states but they block any step of their first neighbour towards this goal," said one diplomat, referring to the way Athens has stalled Macedonia's entry into NATO and the EU as the result of a name dispute between the two countries.

Several diplomats said attempts to fix accession dates were neither realistic nor serious. With the exception of Croatia, which is close to the conclusion of accession talks, other countries from the region have no realistic prospect of becoming EU members in the near future.