ESI President on the Balkans' EU hopes

In an article for the Londond-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), ESI President Gerald Knaus comments on the Balkans' EU hopes:

"The demise of the union's constitutional treaty may have dealt Balkan countries' membership aspirations a severe blow. How serious a setback is the failure of the ratification process of the European Union constitutional treaty for the Western Balkans? At this stage, nobody can say for sure, but the next few months will provide a clear answer. The ongoing European debate on the future of enlargement in the wake of the Dutch and French votes is ominous. Commentators and politicians, particularly in France and Germany, interpret the referenda as a call for a freeze on further progress towards EU membership…" (read the entire article)