RCC Sec Gen: Story of EU enlargement to Balkans convinces ever fewer Europeans

“Like nature, politics hates vacuum, and I can hardly deny that these days there is a disconnection between the energy triggered by the process of European integration of the Western Balkans and the current expectations,” Bregu wrote.

She cited data showing that “70 per cent of Western Balkan citizens aged 18-24 believe that EU membership would be a good thing for their respective economies – far more than any other age group.”

“Their vision of the EU – of Europe – is one which allows freedom of travel (59 per cent), freedom of work and study (59 per cent) and economic prosperity (48 per cent). Fears over loss of sovereignty, a major theme among EU’s Eurosceptics, are minimal, standing at mere 5 per cent. It is thus the values that take the center stage – or as some from Brussels would say, the values enshrined in the Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union,” she wrote.

Bregu argued that “freedom is the main vocation of youth” but explained that freedom of travel is not what Western Balkans youth think of when they envisage Europe - “it is also the freedom to study and work and for some among us like young people from Kosovo it is this is still a dream.”

“In a region where over two thirds of young people would be ready to acquire additional qualifications to get a job, or additional skills to advance, nearly a quarter of them are neither in employment, nor in education or training. It therefore should not surprise us that, again, two thirds of them would be willing to live and work abroad. Yet, work and study opportunities outside of their home economies are exhausting, expensive bureaucratic processes of recognition procedures and chasing the necessary permits,” she wrote.

Bregu’s full Op-Ed can be found here.