The European Union’s top diplomat told MEPs on Monday that the Union has to increase its capacity to explain its stabilizing role in the Western Balkans.

“We have to strengthen our capacity to explain our stabilizing role in the Western Balkans and also our will to cooperate to overcome one of the most difficult issues, the lack of a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell told a remote participation meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.  

He said that the coming EU-Western Balkans summit comes at a good moment because “everybody understands that we need each other and that the Balkans will not be a stable zone without having a clear European perspective”. He added that this can happen if Kosovo and Serbia invest the effort to resolve their differences.  

“We have to be there to encourage, accompany, help, suggest but we cannot do the work that only they can do. Having an experienced diplomat like (former Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav) Lajcak engaged full time can be of much help”, Borell said.  

He expressed the hope that the coronavirus crisis will show that the EU is very much engaged in cooperation with Western Balkan countries and that a clear European perspective will be created for them.

“The perspective is much better today than some weeks ago,” he said.  

Speaking about EU aid to Serbia, Borell said: “If you look on the streets of Belgrade you see billboards with pictures of President Xi of China saying Thanks Brother Xi which is very funny because I have never seen a billboard saying thank you EU for the help you provided and we have been providing a lot of help for Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkans”.  

“Sometimes the help we are providing and effort we are doing is not taken into consideration and the help that China has been provided is being put on the streets as if it is more important than what the EU has provided before and during the crisis,” he added.