The EU’s Balkan Absurdity: preaching stability, sowing chaos

While waiting for the full European Parliament report to be published, one geopolitical fragment reveals everything about Brussels’ hypocrisy towards the Western Balkans’ progress :

“The Parliament is deeply concerned that North Macedonia and other EU accession countries in the Western Balkans are being particularly hard hit by foreign interference and disinformation campaigns. It is also alarmed by the roles of the Hungarian Government and the Serbian Government in advancing China’s and Russia’s geopolitical objectives, states the resolution.”

Let’s unpack this farce. First, the EU condemns us for having close ties with… Hungary, one of its own member states. True, Orbán’s Hungary is out of favour in Brussels, but it remains part of the Union. So, candidate countries are punished for cooperating with EU members? The mental gymnastics here are Olympic-level.

Second, they lecture us about “good neighbourly relations,” yet expect us to distance ourselves from Serbia – a neighbouring country with which Macedonia shares profound cultural, historic, and economic ties dating back to Yugoslavia. At the same time, they claim to support Serbia’s own EU path. How exactly does one build regional stability by manufacturing regional animosity?

Third, we are ordered to align with the EU’s hostile stance towards Russia and China. Yet Brussels itself maintains pragmatic ties with China, driven by economic realities, especially after Trump’s tariffs. As for Russia, Europe continues to import its energy “under the table” via proxies, while publicly condemning it with moral grandstanding.

Meanwhile, Macedonia is again under pressure to amend its Constitution – this time to appease Bulgaria, a member state that systematically negates Macedonian identity and language. We are expected to erase parts of ourselves just to prove we are “European enough,” while simultaneously picking fights with neighbouring Serbia to demonstrate our geopolitical loyalty. Double standards? That would be too mild a term. This is open humiliation.

And the Macedonian government? No matter how degraded it becomes, it keeps kissing Brussels’ hand (or should I say boots). But does the EU even understand its own game? It claims to stabilise the Balkans while systematically destabilising its delicate ethnic and geopolitical balances. (Let alone its attempt to embrace Ukraine while pushing it into a war disaster).

By pushing the narrative of the so-called “Serbian world,” the European Parliament directly inflames interethnic tensions in Macedonia. The Albanian political bloc eagerly weaponises this to shout: “Catch the thief – the Serbs are our enemies!” Since 2018, after the Prespa Agreement, Macedonia’s constitutional sovereignty has become an illusion – a hybrid creature of European tutelage and Balkan clientelism, just as Commissioner Hahn once cynically hinted.

Brussels continues to stir the Balkan cauldron under the delusion of being a benevolent chef. In reality, the EU treats us as expendable bargaining chips in its own internal and geopolitical games. They speak of democracy, stability, and European values. In practice, they breed insecurity, humiliation, and resentment.

If this is the grand European vision for the Balkans, one must ask: who exactly is undermining Europe’s “peace project”? The enemies they see outside, or the arrogance they fail to see within?