EU apathy drives Balkans towards Putin and China, says Macedonia
THE EU is leaving the door open to Chinese and Russian strategic encroachment in the Balkans because of its abject failure to engage with and invest in the region, Macedonia’s president has told The Sunday Telegraph.
Gjorge Ivanov said that the EU was stuck in a 20th-century mindset and petty internal squabbles had left it unable to meet modern-day challenges, from mass migration to digital crime bosses and a revanchist Russia.
“Until recently, we haven’t seen any Russian investment in Macedonia. But as Europe is withdrawing – or rather not keeping its promises about making the Balkans part of the European Union – it’s like a call from the EU to come and fill in that space,” he warned.
Mr Ivanov cited the failure of Europe to channel investment into an eastwest infrastructure corridor connecting the Adriatic and Black seas as an example of EU short-sightedness, as it focused instead on a north-south corridor connecting Greece and Serbia.
“Now we arrive at the situation where we are using Chinese money and credits to build a European corridor transiting the territory of Macedonia. This is the paradox. This is what I mean when I talk about Europe withdrawing. It’s like a call to China,” he said.
The rising influence of Russia, China and Turkey in the western Balkans has become a renewed focus of concern in Europe. British security officials warn of the growing risk of Russian meddling in Macedonia to try to frustrate its turn towards the Euro-Atlantic sphere, and they watch with trepidation as China pours in investment via its “16+1” scheme, under which it holds annual meetings with the leaders of Eastern European countries.
Macedonia is seeking to join both the EU and Nato but is blocked by Greece, which vetoes membership talks because of a long-running dispute over the right of the former Yugoslav republic to use the same name as the region of northern Greece.
In his 2017 state of the union address, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, warned of the need for a “credible enlargement perspective” for the western Balkans for the sake of stability, but EU capitals remain highly resistant.
Macedonia had been criticised by EU and US leaders for democratic backsliding under its previous nationalist government, culminating in the storming of the Macedonian parliament in April this year by supporters of the former nationalist prime minister.
Under pressure from the West, the crisis ultimately forced Mr Ivanov to allow the formation of a new centre-Left social democratic government, which was welcomed in European capitals and Washington. However, Mr Ivanov contended that Greece’s continued blocking of Macedonia had left his country in limbo. “We have a political crisis every two to three years,” he said, “Imagine the feeling of being stuck in a lift for two or three minutes, this is depressing. It makes you feel powerless. Imagine us being stuck in such a lift for 26 years.”
As Mr Ivanov lobbies for Macedonia to be released from that limbo, he warns that – as the 2015 migration crisis showed – Europe should heed the lessons of history and not neglect its crossroads with the East, the crossroads that connects the EU with an unstable Middle East and a rising China.
He added: “Bismarck once said that whoever controls the valley of the River Vardar controls the connections between Europe and the Middle East and whoever controls the connections between Europe and the Middle East also control the connections between Europe and Asia. The EU seems to have forgotten this.”