(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 20 - "We need to keep the Western Balcon region as close as possible to Europe until the countries that are part of it are brought into the Union itself. The accession negotiation is complex, laborious and requires difficult decisions and for this reason Europe must urge the candidate countries at this moment, Serbia on one side and Montenegro on the other, to behave virtuously ". The ambassador of Italy in Belgrade, Carlo Lo Cascio, said this while speaking with ANSA on the sidelines of the XIV Conference of Ambassadors and Ambassadors of Italy in the world at the Foreign Ministry.
"The decision to open cluster 4 by the EU in favor of Serbia - said the diplomat - was important because it showed that when the candidate countries implement virtuous behaviors consistent with the European standards to which the member countries must comply to play their part. This give and take is part of the credibility with which Europe can be a protagonist in the backyard, the Balkans ".
"In this - underlined the ambassador - Italy has always been far-sighted".
"We must not think that in the Balkans only because they are close to us we can always and in any case have a role as European because other actors, Russia, China, Turkey are already there and are influential and are capable of being incisive", said Lo Cascio warned that the Balkans risk being a battleground between "the West on the one hand and Russia and China seeking to expand their influence in a region that is very important to our national and European interests".
(HANDLE).