At a panel discussion held as part of a conference in Split on Friday, the foreign ministers of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania said that the integration of Southeast European countries with the EU was important for the sake of those countries' development as well as for the sake of strengthening European security.
"There is no stable country without a stable neighbourhood and that is why we should be able to assume responsibility for ourselves as well as for this part of Europe, which is not a small thing because instability and many wars began exactly in this part of Europe," said Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić.
The Split conference, focusing on European integration processes and economic development, was organised by British business magazine The Economist in cooperation with the Croatian Foreign Ministry.
"Integration with the EU is all the more important for Southeast European countries because we had... wars in the 1990s and now we need a topic to cooperate on so we can leave a better legacy to the generations to come and the European Union is such a topic," Pusić said.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said that the prospect of EU membership could promote cooperation in the Western Balkans.
"What should we do about a single economic zone in our region, can we help one another and, finally, are we closer to one another or to some that are several thousand kilometres away from us," Dačić said.
He said that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's statement that there would be no EU enlargement in the next five years and during the term of the current EC, was not surprising but that it "has had a negative impact on public opinion in Serbia."
"We believe that the EU enlargement fatigue is a topic imposed in a way by the media. Serbian citizens vote in elections for those who unequivocally support EU integration," Dačić said.
Montenegrin Foreign Minister Igor Lukšić said that membership of the EU and NATO contributed to the stability of the region and the entire Mediterranean.
Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati warned that with regard to security, there was no unity in the Western Balkans.
He said that the Ukraine crisis, conflicts in the Middle East and developments regarding the Islamic State terrorist organisation reflected on the situation in the Western Balkans.
The Western Balkans could become a testing ground for competition between the EU and other actors, Bushati said, adding that developments should be considered in terms of their geopolitical impact and that the EU should secure its southern flank.