Call to open EU markets to Balkans

EU leaders meeting in Lisbon tomorrow will be urged to open their markets to agricultural products from the Balkans to help stimulate regional economic recovery.

A draft joint report to the summit from the Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Chris Patten, and the EU's Foreign and Security Policy supremo, Mr Javier Solana, also urges the reform and speeding up of EU aid, extra macroeconomic assistance to Macedonia and Kosovo, and the bolstering of the regional fight against crime through tougher border controls.

It advocates the creation of a special EU rapid reaction fund to enable the EU to respond more quickly to crises.

The strategy report, which reflects serious EU concern at the continuing volatility of the western Balkans, will be discussed ahead of Monday's Brussels cash-pledging conference.

The report insists that even though the EU's pressure on the Milosevic regime has not yielded results, it must be maintained and tightened. "There can be no durable stability in the western Balkans as long as the Milosevic regime remains in power," it says.

The report argues that "isolation could itself become a major obstacle to political change" and makes the case for continuing a strategy to "open up Serbia" by targeting sanctions at the Milosevic entourage while encouraging and rewarding democratic forces.

In the longer term, the report urges the EU to detail the steps to be taken by each country in the region to conclude stabilisation and association agreements and of focusing aid to that end.