Following a meeting with EU Foreign Ministers where it was agreed that the EU should make more effort to improve communication between the Union and its neighbourhood, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini held a press point. One of the questions dealt with the influence of Russia in the Western Balkans. Asked to expand on concrete activities of the EEAS StratComm Division aimed at combating that influence, Mogherini said:
The very small Strategic Communication Task Force I have set up this summer only, so few months ago, on the Western Balkans has just started its work. It is too early to assess the results of the work. But let me say that I visited the region very often and there is not one single week that I don’t meet either a Prime Minister, or a President, or Foreign Minister or a Europe Minister of the region. This is probably one of the files on which we are working the most. And this is in itself part of our strategic communication because you can have the best technical team doing strategic communication, if you don’t have the right policy, there is not much you can communicate about.
On the Western Balkans, we do have a strong European Union stand and a strong European Union policy that is the basis for our effective communication. So, we can improve the communication, I think the policy has already improved a lot when we are clear in saying the future of the entire region is in the European Union. We want and we need the Western Balkans to cooperate as a region, and to have this clear sense of direction towards the European Union. And mentioning the different six partners, the different steps and stages – each of them has its own specificity, but we have the clear and joint sense of direction of the region.
I am not worried about the influence or the presence of any of the other partners that countries in the region can have, because I have seen it myself and repeatedly, even during the course of last year, where many countries faced complicated political electoral cycles, to call it this way, when the European Union is there – and it is there with all its power, with all its presence coherently – there is no other partner that has a stronger influence than the European Union in the region, because the region is Europe.
You look at the borders, there is no external border of any of the Western Balkans six. Their borders are all borders with European Union. We are one, we are a family. We are geographically and historically bound together. This is why when the European Union is consistent and coherent, and when our partners in the region are also consistent and coherent, no other influence or presence can be stronger than that.
Read Federica Mogherini’s full speech here
