BRUSSELS _ Serbia and Montenegro may join the European Union by 2025, the bloc's executive will say, urging the western Balkan countries to improve the rule of law, curb corruption and put aside past grudges to enter the world's largest trading club.
The EU is offering a path to membership two decades after the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Along with other ex-communist nations from the Baltic to the Black Seas, the ex-Yugoslav states of Croatia and Slovenia have joined the 28-member bloc and are benefiting from improved trade and billions of euros in development funds.
After a decade of crises including Greece, the largest refugee inflows since World War II and Brexit, European leaders are looking to expand the EU's ranks. But an alleged coup attempt in Montenegro, unrest in the parliaments of Macedonia and Albania and tensions between Serbia and Kosovo underscore the risks of renewed violence.
"Overall, significant progress has been made both on reforms and on overcoming the devastating legacy of war and conflict," the commission will say in a draft report seen Monday by Bloomberg. "But in order for the countries to meet all membership conditions and strengthen their democracies, comprehensive and convincing reforms are still required in crucial areas, notably on the rule of law, competitiveness, and regional cooperation and reconciliation."
The European Commission will debate the report on the bloc's EU Enlargement Strategy in the Western Balkans with EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday. Bulgaria, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, will hold a summit of the bloc's leaders in Sofia in May to discuss the matter.
By 2025, "the EU could become larger than 27 Members," according to the report. "With strong political will, delivery of real and sustained reforms, and definitive solutions to disputes with neighbors, Serbia and Montenegro could potentially be ready for membership by this date."
Accession talks may begin with Albania and the Republic of Macedonia on the basis of fulfilled conditions, according to the report. Bosnia and Herzegovina can become a candidate "with sustained effort," it said.
For Serbia to progress, it must normalize relations with Kosovo in a legally binding agreement. All countries must introduce measures to uphold judicial independence and tackle organized crime and graft. The commission said it's reaching out to the countries on the continent's southeastern fringe to make a "geostrategic investment in a stable, strong and united Europe based on common values."
"Accession is and will remain a merit-based process fully dependent on the objective progress achieved by each country," the draft said. "The countries may catch up or overtake each other depending on progress made."
