EU, Western Balkans to boost partnership amid Ukraine war

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN and LLAZAR SEMINI

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — EU leaders and their Western Balkans counterparts are to meet for talks aimed at boosting their partnership as Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens to reshape the geopolitical balance in the region. The EU wants to use the one-day summit in Albania’s capital to tell leaders from Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia that they have futures within the wealthy economic bloc, and give them concrete signs, rather than just promises, that they will join one day. Since Russia started its war in February, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has been repeating that stepping up the bloc’s engagement with the sextet of nations is more crucial than ever to maintaining Europe’s security.