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Workers, minerals, refugees, prisoners: What is the European Union really using the Western Balkans for?

2026-07-14 20:16:28Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The French newspaper "Le Monde diplomatique" criticizes the EU for misusing Albania to deport refugees, taking doctors from Kosovo and housing deported criminals in its prisons, while in Serbia the EU is interested in patronizing the regime of Aleksandar Vu?i? and exploiting minerals.

The future of the European Union and its enlargement process is perhaps not being decided in the meeting rooms of Brussels, but in forgotten Balkan villages like Gjadri in northern Albania. An analysis by the prestigious French newspaper “Le Monde diplomatique” highlights that the will for full integration is being replaced by a purely pragmatic and exploitative relationship. According to the article, beyond the official rhetoric of enlargement, Brussels is using the Western Balkans as a buffer zone for its crisis management, as a warehouse for unwanted prisoners, and as a cheap source of raw materials and skilled labor.

The clearest symbol of this new policy is precisely the camp surrounded by barbed wire at the former military airport of Gjadri, built under the administration of the Italian government. With the entry into force of the new European Pact on Asylum and Migration, this camp and others like it are becoming the main destination of the EU's externalization policy of borders. Instead of accepting refugees, Europe is uniting around the principle of expelling and keeping them outside its territorial borders. This system forces the candidate countries of the Balkans to sign repatriation agreements, turning them into waiting stations for rejected migrants, who are often illegally deported by member states such as Germany and Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia, where they are left completely at the mercy of fate.

In addition to migrants, the region is also being used as a space for serving sentences for foreign prisoners from wealthy countries in the bloc. The 2021 agreement between Kosovo and Denmark to rent 300 cells in the Gjilan prison, for a fee of 15 million euros per year, serves as a precedent. Although Danish authorities guarantee the application of their law within the institution, local human rights organizations have warned that this “business” risks turning Kosovo into a dumping ground for deportees who cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin. The interest expressed by Belgium in following the same path proves that this model is being viewed with great interest by other member states.

On the economic front, the EU’s interest is focused on the region’s untapped mineral resources, especially lithium, which is vital for the car industry’s transition to electric power. The signing of a strategic partnership between the EU and Serbia, strongly supported by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his automotive industry, illustrates this approach. Although Germany has large lithium reserves of its own, European politicians prefer that the polluting process of extracting this mineral take place in Serbia, completely ignoring the massive protests of Serbian citizens for the protection of the environment and their lives.

On the other hand, the region is facing a constant depletion of its most precious human resources, especially in the health sector. From Kosovo alone, hundreds of qualified nurses and doctors leave for European hospitals every year, driven not only by better salaries, but also by the nepotism and political clientelism that dominate the local labor market. The former European Commission Director for the Western Balkans, Pierre Mirel, openly admits that this mass exodus is making the Balkans increasingly poorer and Europe increasingly richer.

This situation is fueled by the very way the EU distributes its aid funds. Billion-dollar growth plans often end up financing projects that are given to companies closely linked to the ruling political elites. This process creates a situation where local leaders play the role of intermediaries between international capital and local resources, strengthening their authoritarian power.

For this reason, Brussels and other European capitals show extraordinary tolerance for autocratic leaders like Aleksandar Vu?i?. Although Serbia remains the only candidate country that refuses to impose sanctions on Russia, the EU continues to coddle his regime. French President Emmanuel Macron’s frequent visits to Belgrade and the sale of 12 Rafale fighter jets for around 3 billion euros prove that the geopolitical and commercial interests of powerful European countries outweigh the principles of the rule of law or citizens’ demands for democracy.

At the end of the analysis, “Le Monde diplomatique” notes that the promise of EU membership is being kept alive only as a “carrot in front of the donkey’s nose”, while real integration is postponed indefinitely. As long as this unstable equilibrium continues, the Western Balkan countries remain condemned to play only the role of simple supplier of raw materials, source of cheap labor and guard of the external borders of the European Union.


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