Central 5 express support for Western Balkans bid for EU membership

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic expressed support for EU membership for the Western Balkan nations.

"Together with the Foreign Ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, we once again expressed our support for the Western Balkan countries on their path to the EU," Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said after meeting in the nation’s capital of Ljubljana with the other four foreign ministers.

Fajon expressed satisfaction with the launch of EU accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and said they discussed at the meeting how they could help.

EU Council President Charles Michel announced March 21 that the bloc decided to start accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia submitted its membership application in 2016 and received candidate country status in December 2022.

The ministers also agreed to solve the problem of human trafficking and irregular migration in the region together, according to Fajon.

Accelerating Montenegro's EU membership process was also discussed during the meeting.

The ministers gathered in the Central 5 meeting -- an informal political cooperation that began in 2020.

Central 5 meetings are focused on border crossing and the exchange of views on EU activities to overcome the economic and social crisis since the coronavirus pandemic.