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THE COMING WORLD. The EU will hardly be credible if it does not manage, quickly, to heal the open wounds of the Balkans.
By Emmanuel Berretta
© LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
Published on
Lhe war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s influence game in the Western Balkans are waking the Twenty-Seven from a deep sleep. The year 2022 marked a turning point: the European Union no longer wants to let this region, landlocked in the flanks of Europe, drift towards unfriendly shores. Russia, China, Turkey and Gulf countries have advanced their pawns there. The European eagerness to concern itself with this region, after 20 years of reluctance – notably from France –, of cowardice and postponed promises, is also due to the urgency of cutting off the migratory route: 130,000 illegal crossings of the border of the EU were recorded in the Balkans in 2022, half between Serbia and Hungary.
“The Balkans produce more history than they can consume…
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