{"id":134854,"date":"2024-10-24T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T04:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority\/"},"modified":"2024-10-24T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T04:30:14","slug":"eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"EU chief starts Balkans tour, says enlargement \u2018top priority\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134854\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday pledged that membership expansion would be high on the Brussels agenda, as she arrived in Albania at the start of a tour of six Balkan nations hoping to join the bloc. \u201cRest assured that enlargement will remain top priority in my next mandate,\u201d von der Leyen told a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. \u201cWe have now all the necessary tools and all the instruments that we need in place, so let\u2019s go to a good work,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Rama said that there was \u201cno debate on whether Albania\u2019s place is in the European Union, and our children\u2019s future must be shaped only in the EU\u201d. \u201cWe are EU fanatics\u201d, the prime minister stressed. Von der Leyen, on her fourth visit to the region, will move on to North Macedonia on Thursday before taking in the other countries in the region. Discussions around EU enlargement in the region of almost 18 million people stretch back 20 years, with Brussels blowing hot and cold during that period.<\/p>\n<p>The six countries too have endured wildly different fortunes, with Kosovo still not recognised by five EU states and the furthest from membership, while Montenegro is seen as the frontrunner. Public support for EU membership and the political will to implement reforms fell in some countries during that period. But the mood changed with Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, an event that \u201cre-energised the whole process\u201d, Heather Grabbe of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict sparked renewed efforts in EU circles to counter Russian influence in the region. \u201cThe fact that she is going early in the second term and going frequently is a strong political signal of commitment and interest,\u201d Grabbe said. The six countries von der Leyen will visit \u2014 Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia \u2014 will be trying to show they are serious about passing the reforms the EU demands.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/world\/eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority\/article\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/world\/eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority\/article\">DJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/eu-chief-starts-balkans-tour-says-enlargement-top-priority\/\">EU chief starts Balkans tour, says enlargement \u2018top priority\u2019<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[16628,555,16629],"class_list":["post-134854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-balkan-tour","tag-csr-news-en","tag-eu-chief"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}