Greek president: All Balkan countries belong in the European Union

Serbia’s natural home is the European Union, where all Balkan countries belong as long as they respect international and European law, stressed Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos in an address to the National Assembly of Serbia on Monday.

“This way, we shall creatively add the Balkan peninsula to the European Union as its southeastern equal partner, not in its problematic Balkan aspect,” Pavlopoulos noted.

The Greek president spoke extensively about the long and undisturbed friendship between the two countries, and underlined that Greece had “made it clear wherever necessary” that it “supports Serbia’s European prospects through the established membership process.” Greece, he added, is also ready to provide technical assistance and advice to the country as Greece has been a full member of the EU for almost forty years.

He criticised the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) for “persisting in its use of a name which falsifies history and undermines its European perspective,” adding that the European acquis rejects the membership of countries that cast doubt on the status quo of EU member-states’ borders. He also directed his criticism at Albania for undermining basic human rights, especially that of private property, which he warned also undermined the country’s European prospects.

Referring to Greek borders in the Aegean Sea, the president clarified that the Treaty of Lausanne must be respected by all. “Any doubt cast on it, directly or indirectly, is incomprehensible and should obviously be rejected,” he said mentioning Turkey, adding that Greece wants Turkey to be democratic and prosperous, with a European perspective.

“I have good reason to believe that the next visit of a Greek president in Serbia and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia will occur in Serbia as a full member of the European Union, where she naturally belongs,” he pointed out.