Former French Minister of European Affairs and current member of the European Parliament (EP) Nathalie Loiseau, said on Tuesday the Balkan region “was not at all ready” to join the European Union, as the bloc was not fit to take in those countries, the Paris France Inter reported as carried by the Beta news agency.

Speaking on the second day of the French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Belgrade, Loiseau said she was not in favour of direct integration, but of “very close partnership at the economic level, in infrastructure, but at a political level as well to avoid all the tensions.”

“It is necessary for Europe to do much more in the Balkan countries. That, however, does not mean they can join the EU immediately. Those states are not at all ready, neither are we to accept them,” the MEP said.

She added that from the diplomatic point of view, there were certain things the EU did not do in the Balkans which geographically, historically and culturally is in the heart of Europe.