News: Costa at the Bled Strategic Forum stresses support for the accession path but does not set a timeline

The twentieth edition of the Bled Strategic Forum took place in Slovenia, featuring this year a dedicated panel on the European prospects of the six Western Balkan countries. In his opening speech, European Council President António Costa emphasized that the accession paths of the Western Balkans, as well as those of Moldova and Ukraine, are “concrete priorities” for the European Union. However, Costa did not indicate a specific date, neither confirming nor denying the 2030 horizon outlined by his predecessor, Charles Michel. Costa also urged the candidate countries to adopt “a change of mindset” in order to overcome historical disputes and prepare for a shared future.

Photo credits: Arno Mikkor (EU2017EE), CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons