The European Union has to offer Southeast European countries a prospect of EU membership, in order to avert repeating the conflicts like those that occurred in the 1990s, said President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking at the European Parliament on Tuesday.

If we do not open up to countries in that extremely complicated and tragic region, if we do not offer them a European prospect, we will again see the kind of war in that region like the one that happened in the 1990s, Juncker told members of the European Parliament after they were addressed by the French President Emmanuel Macron.

I do not want a war in the Balkans again, and therefore we have to open up to those countries, Juncker added. Juncker warned that Europe does not consist of just France and Germany, and that Europe needed the contribution of other countries as well.

The European Commission is expected to publish progress reports for EU candidate countries and potential member countries later on Tuesday.