West Balkan states may only join EU together - Scholz
The six West Balkan states attended a summit in Berlin to sign agreements to bring them closer to EU membership. The German Chancellor said they needed to cooperate.
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00:00German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the
00:10six West Balkan states to Berlin on Monday as part of the 10-year Berlin Process Summit.
00:16The Berlin Process aims to bring countries such as Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia
00:21and Herzegovina, Albania and North Macedonia together to sign agreements to enable them
00:26to become full EU member states. Five out of six agreements were signed and restrictions
00:32on export from Serbia to Kosovo were lifted.
00:36Scholz underlined that the states could only join together despite some of them likely
00:40to meet conditions quicker than the others. He encouraged the states to help each other
00:44out. Montenegro is seen as the first promising country to be integrated to Europe despite
00:50the process beginning more than 20 years ago. Whilst Montenegro expects to meet all the
00:55requirements before 2028, Scholz said he hopes the whole process would be complete
01:01before 2030.
01:03But with Ukraine and Moldova's memberships to the EU being accelerated since Russia's
01:07full-scale invasion in Ukraine, it's likely to leave a sour taste in the mouth of the
01:12six Balkan states. Liv Stroud, in Berlin, for Euronews.