Italy is interested in completing the European integrations by admitting the West Balkans to the EU, and Serbia has the key role in that process, stated President of the IPLAMO Institute and former Head of the Italian Diplomacy Gianni de Michelis.

As a guest of the seminar entitled “Serbia – one step closer to European integrations”, De Michelis reminded that the past 20 years or se have been very difficult for this region, but now the new perspectives are opened.

He added that in the last five years Europe has lost a lot of time in voting on the Lisbon Treaty, and assessed that it lead to noticeable decrease of enthusiasm in the majority of European countries, regarding the expansion of the Union.

The slowness of Europe in this situation could result in the weakening of the pro-European forces and a turnover in public opinion in the societies such as the Turkish one, but also the countries of the West Balkans, concluded De Michelis.