BRUSSELS – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday he was not in favor of the Western Balkan countries joining the EU soon, but warned that, if they lost the European perspective, “we will again experience what we experienced in the 1990s.”
“In this respect, the stability of the composition of the European Union is a prerequisite for the Balkans not being at war again,” he told Politico in an interview.
He said he hoped US President Donald Trump – who has claimed the EU was falling apart – understood that.
If the EU falls to pieces, the Western Balkans “would lose the European perspective,” Juncker said in the interview.