Balkan countries could halt crucial reforms "in the absence of concrete European prospects", Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio warned on Monday, urging the bloc to inject new impetus into the process.
"We (the EU) need to avoid a vicious circle in which a failure to offer concrete European prospects could slow down or stop the reform process in countries in the Western Balkans," Di Maio stated.
"Renewed third-party activity, which could easily fill the void created by our indecisiveness over the region's EU membership aspirations makes it all the more urgent to re-launch this process," Di Maio said.
Di Maio was addressing the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
Transatlantic relations and the Western Balkans are the main focus of Monday's Foreign Affairs Council. The Sahel, Afghanistan, Lebanon, relations with Russia, ongoing talks in Vienna on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the delaying of this month's Palestinian elections and climate are also on the meeting agenda.
