World

How close are the Western Balkans to joining the European Union?

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2022

How close are the Western Balkans to joining the European Union?

After the European Union took simply weeks to determine on candidate standing for Ukraine and Moldova, Western Balkan nations – a few of which began their accession path greater than a decade in the past – felt the bloc owed them an indication.

Half of them — Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia — threatened to boycott a summit with EU leaders simply two days earlier than it was meant to happen.

On the eleventh hour, Bulgaria’s opposition chief introduced that his occasion would raise its veto on North Macedonia accession based mostly on a compromise proposal introduced ahead by the French presidency of the Council.

However this can be the one signal the Western Balkans obtain this week with an EU diplomat stressing on Wednesday that there have been “no conclusions foreseen nor very concrete selections” to anticipate from EU heads of state on Western Balkan enlargement throughout their Council summit on Thursday and Friday.

That implies that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo will, as soon as extra, be saved ready.

EU leaders are, nonetheless, broadly anticipated to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate standing, days after the Fee really useful such a step and weeks after they crammed out all the mandatory paperwork.

How lengthy have they been making an attempt to get into the EU?

In distinction, Bosnia and Herzegovina utilized to affix the bloc in 2016 and has but to obtain candidate standing regardless of the Fee endorsing the transfer in 2019.

Albania utilized in 2009, acquired candidate standing in 2014 and obtained an all-clear from the Fee to begin negotiations in 2018. However they haven’t but began.

Serbia additionally utilized in 2009, obtained candidate standing in 2012 and began negotiations in 2014. Montenegro has an identical trajectory. It utilized in 2008, secured candidate standing in 2010 and accession negotiations began in the summertime of 2012.

However the longest-standing bid is North Macedonia’s. The nation of two million inhabitants first utilized in 2005 with the Fee recommending that negotiations begin in 2009. They haven’t but began.

Kosovo, in the meantime, is a possible candidate however regardless of first signalling it needs to affix the bloc again in 2008, it’s nowhere nearer. That is as a result of its independence just isn’t recognised internationally, and particularly not by Serbia. As a substitute, the EU acknowledged its European perspective, one other symbolic gesture that makes word of its aspiration to change into a member state.

Why does it take so lengthy?

The Fee emphasised earlier this week because it endorsed granting candidate standing to Ukraine and Moldova that the entire accession course of is “merit-based” and “dynamic”.

Neither Ukraine nor Moldova might be entitled to extra EU funds and it doesn’t suggest that negotiations will begin anytime quickly.

As a substitute, the Fee and EU leaders will demand they each make progress on reforms to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, media and civil society in addition to impartial establishments that battle towards corruption and cronyism. Solely once they have made vital progress on these circumstances, will precise negotiations be allowed to proceed.

And even after negotiations begin, the entire course of can falter if reform progress does not proceed at tempo, based on the Fee.

This largely explains the delay for Serbia “as it isn’t in President Vucic’s pursuits to enact reforms that EU membership requires, as these would undermine his patronage system and his maintain on energy,” Luigi Scazzieri, senior analysis fellow on the Centre for European Reform, instructed Euronews.

EU candidate nations are additionally anticipated to align themselves with the bloc’s insurance policies and programmes and “there’s a severe lack of alignment” from Serbia, an EU diplomat stated. For example, Serbia has condemned Russia’s aggression on Ukraine however has to this point refused to implement any sanctions towards Moscow, a step Brussels historically expects from its companions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina can also be in that class, based on one other EU official who affirmed on Wednesday that “for 2 years we have now seen no reform and no motion from Bosnia” on the 14 priorities the EU outlined it wanted to work on.

Fee vs Council

But, for all of its claims that reforms imply progress, this has not been the case for North Macedonia and Albania.

“The 2 nations have performed every little thing that the EU has requested them to do, so the EU going again on its phrase and refusing to open negotiations because it stated it will undermines its credibility,” Scazzieri defined.

Their bid was first blocked by France and the Netherlands — which argued the enlargement course of wanted to be improved earlier than new nations had been introduced into the fold — after which by Greece over a dispute over the nation’s title which led to a historic deal between the 2 nations in the summertime of 2018. Now it is being blocked by Bulgaria.

Sofia needs formal recognition that North Macedonia’s tradition and language are closely influenced by Bulgaria in addition to stronger protections for the nation’s Bulgarian minority.

Albania, whose bid is coupled with North Macedonia’s, has been collateral harm.

However now that the chief of Bulgaria’s opposition, Boyko Borissov, has stated he’s in favour of a French proposal to unblock the scenario, which might entail North Macedonia including an modification to its structure to acknowledge its sturdy historic and cultural hyperlinks with Bulgaria in trade for Sofia backing the negotiation framework, motion might quickly occur.

It’s depending on North Macedonian lawmakers backing it by a two-thirds majority as required for constitutional adjustments.

Will the warfare on Europe’s doorstep speed up enlargement?

The delays for Albania and North Macedonia have had a “unfavourable influence on the credibility of the EU,” the Fee underlined in its newest annual enlargement report.

For Dimitar Bechev, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, “there are two colleges of thought” on the warfare’s influence on enlargement.

“One is saying that now the EU is unfair as a result of it is paying a lot consideration to Ukraine and letting the Western Balkans slip. But in addition there is a college of thought which works one thing like: there’s momentum behind enlargement, let’s get on the bandwagon and get the Western Balkans on the radar. The general is that there is expectation that the EU must be extra forthcoming,” he instructed Euronews.

This might additionally open the door to motion for Bosnia and Herzegovina regardless of the dearth of total progress.

“If Ukraine and Moldova are given candidate standing, the case for granting Bosnia candidate standing as effectively could be stronger, on condition that many EU leaders have stated Ukraine and Georgia are nonetheless a good distance from membership,” Scazzieri on the Centre for European Reform identified.

“Bosnia’s establishments are nonetheless very dysfunctional. If Bosnia does change into a candidate, it can face a really uphill path,” he stated.

For Serbia nonetheless, the occasions in Ukraine don’t change a lot, and progress is unlikely “as long as Kosovo is there,” Bechev stated.

“If there was no sovereignty dispute, you might see Serbia making strides and mainly as a result of it has the executive capability and the scale and every little thing and a few mates within the EU. They might have been simply the subsequent nation to accede to the EU however Kosovo is such an obstacle,” he went on.

Bechev now predicts that Montenegro is the most definitely to affix the EU first.

“It is essentially the most superior within the negotiations, it has no open political points with neighbours, it is very small and it is digestible,” he stated, including that every one that wanted his political will on either side and the nation of 620,000 may very well be a member by the top of the last decade.

Aware of the concept taking root within the Western Balkans that irrespective of how a lot they reform, their membership bids could not progress accordingly, the EU is now trying right into a European Political Neighborhood to which third nations might dock themselves to and have nearer ties with the bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron first floated the concept throughout a convention in early Might however has publicly remained gentle on the main points. He has nonetheless reiterated a number of occasions that this might not be a comfort prize and that nations may very well be a part of the neighborhood as they proceed their accession journey.

EU leaders are anticipated to debate the concept throughout their summit on Thursday and an EU diplomat from Western Europe stated their nation may be very open to such an concept, underlining nonetheless that member states must provide you with standards for who might be a part of it. These might embrace, they stated, shared democratic values with the EU which might subsequently exclude counties resembling Belarus beneath its present regime.

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World

Likely Yemen Houthi rebel attack targets ship in Gulf of Aden as Eisenhower reportedly heads home

Published

3 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

Likely Yemen Houthi rebel attack targets ship in Gulf of Aden as Eisenhower reportedly heads home

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden saw explosions near the vessel, authorities said Saturday, likely the latest attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attempting to target the shipping lane.

The apparent fire by the Houthis comes after the sinking this week of the ship Tutor, which marked what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials reportedly ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America’s response to the Houthi attacks, to return home.

The captain of the ship targeted late Friday saw “explosions in the vicinity of the vessel,” the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

“The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” the UKMTO said, without elaborating on whether the ship sustained any damage.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, did not immediately claim the attack. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.

The Houthis on Friday released footage of one of their drone boats, the “Tufan,” or “Flood,” which they said targeted the Tutor.

The Houthis have launched more than 60 attacks targeting specific vessels and fired off other missiles and drones in their campaign that has killed a total of four sailors. They have seized one vessel and sunk two since November. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.

In March, the Belize-flagged Rubymar carrying fertilizer became the first to sink in the Red Sea after taking on water for days following a rebel attack.

The Houthis have maintained that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the Israel-Hamas war.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Naval Institute’s news service reported, citing an anonymous official, that the Eisenhower would be returning home to Norfolk, Virginia, after an over eight-month deployment in combat that the Navy says is its most intense since World War II. The report said an aircraft carrier operating in the Pacific would be taking the Eisenhower’s place.

The closest American aircraft carrier known to be operating in Asia is the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Roosevelt anchored Saturday in Busan, South Korea, amid Seoul’s ongoing tensions with North Korea.

World

Hot tub death: Wife files wrongful death lawsuit, calls for 'accountability'

Published

4 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

Hot tub death: Wife files wrongful death lawsuit, calls for 'accountability'

A Texas woman has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against two Mexican resort travel companies, seeking more than $1 million, after her husband tragically died after being electrocuted in a resort hot tub.

In the lawsuit, Lizzette Zambrano, from El Paso County, Texas, named vacation rental companies Casago LLC, Casago International LLC and High Desert Travel Inc., which operated Sonoran Sea Resort, where she was staying with her husband, Jorge Guillen.

Zambrano accused the companies of being “grossly negligent” and has called for the companies to “take accountability” for her 43-year-old husband’s death.

“I want somebody to take accountability for what happened to my husband and myself,” Zambrano told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

MEXICO HOT TUB DEATH: US TOURIST WHO WAS ELECTROCUTED REMEMBERED AS ‘BIG FAMILY MAN’ WHO HAD ‘HEART OF GOLD’

Jorge Guillen and Lizzette Zambrano are from El Paso, Texas, according to media reports. (GoFundMe)

The lawsuit paints a picture of the couple’s last moments together before being electrocuted in a hot tub while vacationing.

As soon as Guillen entered the tub, he was “exposed to an electrical current in the water,” it said.

“Jorge immediately keeled over into the tub and was taken under the surface of the water,” the lawsuit said. “Witnessing her husband immediately collapse, Lizzette sprang forward from the pool deck to try and grab Jorge’s body.”

Zambrano attempted to rescue him, but was also shocked.

She was eventually rescued by a bystander and taken to a hospital.

“Patrons attempted to assist, grabbing a shepherd’s cross and other items to attempt to get Jorge’s body,” the lawsuit said. “However, the metal from the objects carried the electrical current and began shocking the rescuers.”

The lawsuit said it took “ten painstaking minutes” before staff members “availed themselves and began to assist in rescuing Jorge.”

MAN KILLED AFTER GETTING ELECTROCUTED IN SEASIDE RESORT JACUZZI

“At no time prior to this, did Defendants seek to engage the emergency shutoff for the jacuzzi or attempt any rescue of either Jorge or Lizzette,” it said. “Jorge was being electrocuted and drowned under water for 10 minutes.”

A beachfront at the popular tourist resort of Puerto Peñasco in the state of Sonora, Mexico. (AP Photo/Annika Wolters/File)

Guillen was remembered in a GoFundMe for having a “heart of gold.”

“Our best friends have experienced a horrible accident. Jorge had a heart of gold and was always there for family and friends. The love they shared was one for ages,” reads a GoFundMe page set up for the couple.

In a comment to the New York Post, Casago denied responsibility.

“The Sonoran Sea is a condo resort and the homeowners’ association is responsible for all common areas, including the maintenance of the swimming pool, hot tubs, and grounds,” they said. “Casago, a vacation rental company, is not involved in any management or maintenance of the resort.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sonoran Sea Resort for comment.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.

World

Israel will be the ‘ultimate loser’ in war with Hezbollah, Iran says

Published

5 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

Israel will be the ‘ultimate loser’ in war with Hezbollah, Iran says

Israel says it will soon ‘make the necessary decisions’ about confronting the Iran-allied Lebanese group.

Iran says Hezbollah is capable of defending itself and Lebanon, warning Israel that it would be the “ultimate loser” in an all-out war with the Lebanese armed group.

Tehran’s statement on Friday came as fears of a major Israeli offensive in Lebanon continued to mount.

“Any imprudent decision by the occupying Israeli regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war, the consequence of which would be the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure as well as that of the 1948 occupied territories,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a social media post.

“Undoubtedly, this war will have one ultimate loser, which is the Zionist regime. The Lebanese Resistance Movement, Hezbollah, has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon – perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come.”

Israel also issued a threat to Iran-aligned Hezbollah on Friday with Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying “soon we will make the necessary decisions” about confronting the Lebanese group.

“The free world must unconditionally stand with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our war is also your war,” Katz said.

Israel cannot allow the Hezbollah terror organization to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and soon we will make the necessary decisions. The free world must unconditionally stand with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our…
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 21, 2024

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said this week that if the Israeli military goes to war in Lebanon, his group will use its rockets and drones to hit targets across the entire territory of Israel. He warned Hezbollah would wage a war with “no restraint and no rules and no ceilings”.

Nasrallah also issued a threat to Cyprus, a European Union member that sits in the eastern Mediterranean west of the Lebanese and Israeli coasts. He said the group has information that Israel is conducting military exercises in Cyprus in terrain similar to southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah added that Israel plans to use airports and bases in Cyprus for military purposes if its own infrastructure is targeted during a serious war.

“Opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means the Cypriot government has become part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” he said without elaborating.

Cyprus said Nasrallah’s threat is not grounded in reality, stressing the country enjoys great relations with Lebanon.

Still, the Hezbollah statement exacerbated concerns about an even larger regional war that could spill beyond Lebanon’s borders and pull Iran-allied groups – if not Tehran itself – as well as the United States into the conflict.

Hezbollah started attacking military bases in northern Israel the day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian groups. Israel responded by bombing southern Lebanese villages and Hezbollah positions.

While the near-daily clashes have displaced tens of thousands of people in Lebanon and Israel, they have been largely contained to the border areas.

But the violence has escalated in recent weeks, especially after an Israeli air raid killed a top Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon last week.

On Friday, Hezbollah claimed several military operations against Israel, including a drone attack it said targeted Israeli forces at a coastal base on the western side of the border.

The US has pushed for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis while expressing concern about Hezbollah’s attacks. “We have made quite clear we do not want to see escalation of this conflict,” Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday.

For its part, Hezbollah has said it will continue operations against the Israeli military until Israel ends its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians.

Members of Hezbollah attend the funeral of a senior field commander [File: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]