ESI Report – Balkan turtle race – a warning for Ukraine – on Montenegro

At the same time the European Union could send a strong signal to the whole region: any European democracy that meets the criteria, including respect for human rights and the rule of law, as assessed by the European Commission in its annual reports, should gain access to the European Single Market and to the four freedoms – the free movement of goods, people, services and capital. [...] This is how the European Commission recently described the principles governing the accession negotiations and the negotiations procedure: www.esiweb.org 4 “The objective of the negotiations is that Albania and North Macedonia adopt the EU acquis in its entirety and ensure its full implementation and enforcement upon accession. [...] A truly inclusive Europe.”53 All this suggests a way forward: the EU could declare that any European democracy that meets the required criteria, including respect for human rights and the rule of law, as assessed by the European Commission in its annual reports, should gain access to the European Single Market and to the four freedoms – the free movement of goods, people, services and capital. [...] Since all EU members and all Western Balkan candidates are members of the Council of Europe – and Kosovo, which applied for membership, should be admitted as soon as possible – looking at their record when it comes to respect for the moral constitution of the continent, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECtHR), is an ob. [...] There were 343 of these at the end of 2021: the highest amount in the history of the Court.