UWC Vice President Hočak on outcome of Ukraine-Balkans Summit

The Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit fostered closer ties between Ukraine and 12 countries of the region, said Miroslav Hočak, UWC Vice President for South Eastern Europe.

“This is especially true for the countries that, like Ukraine, are European Union (EU) candidate states and are now walking together on the path to European integration,” he told the UWC.

In turn, the Balkan countries used the summit as an opportunity to once again show their support for Ukraine. Their key message, according to Hocak, was that “without a free and peaceful Ukraine, there is no free and peaceful Europe.”.

The summit’s final Declaration condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and described it as unjustified and illegal. It furthermore drew attention to war crimes committed against the Ukrainian people and Moscow’s blatant violations of international law. 

“The Declaration expresses support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, EU integration, NATO membership, and proposes increasing all forms of assistance,” the UWC Vice President wrote.

Hočak also highlighted Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s remark that Southeast European candidate countries will join the EU alongside Ukraine, despite the fact that some of these nations have had candidate status for more than 15 years.

He noted that because of the current situation, these processes are moving forward at a faster pace, pushing Ukraine to implement reforms quicker. 

“For example, it only took four months for Ukraine to move from submitting its application to obtaining official candidate status, but overall, the EU integration process will largely depend on Ukraine,” Hocak said.

The summit took place on Oct. 9 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, employing the “Ukraine plus 12 countries” format. 

Leaders from Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Türkiye, and Romania, as well as European Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica, participated in the event.