Greece wants one or more Western Balkan countries to join the European Union in the second half of 2027, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said in an interview to Serbian newspaper “Politika.”
Greece will be holding the EU Council’s rotating six-month presidency starting July 1, 2027.
Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia – are an integral part of the European family, Gerapetritis said, adding that he support an accelerated EU expansion process. He noted that Greece first brought the question of EU integration of the Western Balkans during another Council presidency in 2003, even before the first Eastern European countries had formally joined the union.
“We cannot imagine a Europe without Serbia and the Western Balkans,” he said; the issue is a matter of credibility for the EU itself as well as a vital one for the region’s stability and security.
In September 2025, Greece and Serbia signed a memorandum of cooperation agreeing that Greece would assist Serbia in continuing the legal, institutional and economic reforms needed to join the EU.
