The future is filled with the factual data on which we base the anticipations that inform our decisions. That’s why, on a quarterly basis, our team shares with the GEAB readers the \u2018raw\u2019 data of this work in the form of an annotated calendar of upcoming events for the next three or four months. It is a calendar which everyone can adapt to their own concerns \u2013 a simple, original and illuminating tool.<\/p>\n
17th<\/sup> May: EU-Balkans Summit in Sofia (Bulgaria)\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n We have often said that the EU’s enlargement to the Balkans is a geopolitical time bomb, considering the current state of EU-Russia and EU-Turkey relations. But, interestingly enough, the words \u2018integration\u2019 or \u2018enlargement\u2019 do not appear on the institutional description of the EU-Balkans Summit[1]<\/a>. Instead, words like \u2018cooperation\u2019, \u2018partnership\u2019 and \u2018rapprochement\u2019 are mentioned. Furthermore, the Kosovo issue, which actually divides the EU (Greece, Romania, Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia do not recognise the state of Kosovo yet), has been bypassed by giving Kosovo a neutral status in the meeting. Finally, the summit has been organised on the initiative of Bulgaria, the country currently holding the EU Presidency and one with notorious Russian sympathies. The time seems ripe, then, for this summit to make a significant contribution in terms of initiating a constructive and non-ideological dynamic of privileged partnership between the EU and the Balkans. \u00a0A highly relevant initiative, seen from this angle! Let’s dream a little and imagine that Russia is invited as an observer at the last minute and that the EU-Balkans Summit will also serve to revive EU-Russia relations, as we hoped a few months ago…\t\t