The Latest Breaking News from Western Balkans

The European Union should focus on rewarding countries of the Western Balkans for progress on the road to accession in order to create incentives for them to keep pursuing a distant and challenging goal, Slovenia's Prime Minister said.

Germany will deploy troops with the EU's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia for the first time in a decade as concerns mount about instability from the Ukraine war spilling over to the Western Balkans, the parliament in Berlin decided on Friday.

At the most recent EU leaders’ summit last week, much of the talk was focused on the future of the European Union, particularly its potential enlargement. Varying degrees of assurances on possible membership were given to Ukraine, Moldova and to a different degree, the Western Balkans states. EU leaders gave…

European Union leaders will seek to offer support this week to six Western Balkan nations that have long been knocking at the bloc’s doors

The European Union in May registered a steep rise of illegal entries from the Western Balkans into the 27-nation bloc, the EU border agency Frontex said on Monday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on Bulgaria to lift its veto on EU accession talks for North Macedonia, saying the bloc should avoid dashing the membership hopes of countries in Western Balkans.

(Refiles to give PM's full name in lede parapraph)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuvic appeared to rebuff pressure from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday for Serbia to join European Union sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying he did not believe sanctions to be "efficient".

The war that is taking place in Ukraine is redrawing the geopolitical map across the continent and shaking up Europeans’ presuppositions. It is reshaping their relationship to security, to their neighbours and challenges the European Union to redefine the foundations of the European construction.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he will travel to the Western Balkans before a meeting of the European Council takes place next month, bearing the message that the region belongs in the European Union.

Serbia must press ahead with reforms, including on media freedom, to realise its ambition of joining the European Union, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday, adding he wanted all Western Balkans countries to become members.