Either the EU will stabilise the Balkans or the Balkans will destabilise the EU, the Union’s Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, told N1 on Saturday in an interview in Davos, Switzerland.

“The motive I am lead by in the neighbourhood policy, which also applies to candidate countries in the Balkans, is – either we, as the EU, export stability, or we import instability,” Hahn said.

Sustainable peace, economic and social progress and reconciliation are only possible when all six Balkan countries that are still not member states have a European perspective, he said, adding that both those countries and the EU profit from that.

When and how those countries will join the Union is up to them, he said, adding that “every country has a key to the EU and can use it,” Hahn said.

The EU has published its Balkan strategy last February, he said, “where we have clearly concluded that any new candidate can only become a member when it solves its bilateral conflicts.”

Concrete negotiations between Montenegro and Serbia and the EU are ongoing, but “that does not mean that those countries are the first to reach the finish line.”

“There is no speed limit, but the changes need to be sustainable,” he said, exemplifying the fight against corruption, developing the rule of law and economic development and saying that “this all takes time.”

Hahn said that a lot of progress has been made in the Balkans, listing the Macedonian name deal that is waiting to be ratified in Athens as well as positive steps made by Albania.

Bosnia’s EU accession remains “the biggest challenge in the region,” Hahn said, “because the situation in the country is very difficult.”

“It is about finding a solution for all the different ethnic groups, about organising peaceful coexistence and that this country also has a European perspective so young people don’t feel coerced to emigrate to European countries,” he said.

He emphasized the Bosnian Croats in this context because of their dual citizenship which makes it easier for them to leave.

“It is a problem because the country is left without its most educated and most capable people, and that cannot be in our interest,” he said, adding that it is detrimental to stability to have a country that strongly depends on remittances.

The other problem is that those who stay but are unemployed can be targeted by “radical forces,” Hahn said.