“Early admission of Balkan countries to the EU is in the interests of the EU itself,” European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said.
Report inform that he spoke ahead of the summit of the Western Balkan States in Berlin.
"We are not talking about people in South-Eastern Europe, we are talking about our own most urgent interests. Either we export stability or we import instability," Hahn said in his interview to the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
According to him, the Balkan countries are the EU's neighbors and European politicians cannot and should not be indifferen to their situation in politics and economy.
The European Commissioner called for the alternate admission of Western Balkan countries to the EU.
"If some country comes closer to the EU faster, then it cannot be punished for the fact that others are moving slowlier. Competition among states is good, it leads to motivation," the Commissioner said.