European Union has to open up a European perspective to the Western Balkan countries to avoid the risk of repeating of the 1990s conflict in that region, said the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in his address before the European Parliament on Tuesday.

“If we do not open up to countries in that highly complicated and tragic region, and if we do not open up a European perspective to them, we will see war returning to that area as we saw in the 1990s,” Juncker stressed.

“I do not want to see the war returning to the Balkans and so we need to open up to them,” he added.

The European Commission will publish a report today on progress of the candidate countries and potential candidates for the EU membership.