BACK when the European project was in top gear, it was largely driven by the continent’s fear of Balkanisation. Now, the Balkans fear what they dub “Britainisation”: the risk that Brexit will block their efforts to get into the European Union. On July 4th the leaders of the western Balkan countries met in Paris with François Hollande, Angela Merkel and various EU officials to discuss their accession bids. The Balkan leaders were “in shock”, said a senior diplomat. Since the end of the wars of the 1990s, joining the EU has been their foreign-policy priority. They wanted to know whether Britain’s decision to leave had poisoned Europe’s appetite for enlargement.
The first omen was not good. After the referendum, Britain failed to grant its consent for Serbia to proceed to the next stage of its membership negotiations. British officials soon reversed the decision, and EU officials put it down to post-referendum chaos.
The Paris meeting, the third in a series, was a German initiative—like much else in the Balkans these days. It included various feel-good gestures. The EU announced €150m ($ 167m) in aid for infrastructure…
