THERE were moments when a gathering of western Balkan leaders in London on July 9th and 10th seemed like a scene from one of the “Carry On” films, quintessential British comedies of the 1960s and 1970s. For starters, Britain was holding a meeting aimed at helping countries join the European Union, which it is leaving. Then the foreign ministers hung around waiting for Boris Johnson, Britain’s foreign secretary—and their host—to show up. They were asked to be patient. He was, apparently, attending an emergency government security meeting in the wake of the death of a woman from a chemical-warfare agent called Novichok. In fact, he was resigning, arguing that the latest Brexit plan would leave Britain as “a colony” of the EU. When the ministers were told the truth, some burst out laughing.

The “Western Balkans Summit” was not an EU meeting but part of a German initiative called the Berlin Process. The London meeting, bringing together various EU leaders plus those from Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, was decided upon before Britain voted to leave the EU. In a bid to keep Britain involved Germany then agreed to let the UK keep the summit, and British officials leapt at the chance to use it to give meaning to their mantra that, though Britain is leaving the EU, “it is not leaving Europe.”

It was always going to be a hard sell, trying as one British official put it, to “square the circle”. Visa requirements make it extremely hard for citizens of the Western Balkan six even to visit the UK, unlike the Schengen zone for which no visas are required, except for citizens of Kosovo. A member of one Balkan delegation admitted that “it is hard for us to explain to our people why we are trying to join the EU when a big and important country is leaving.” On the other hand, Nikola Dimitrov, the Macedonian foreign minister, said pointedly that “those inside forget how cold it is outside.”

After years of neglect, Britain has been showing renewed interest in the region, in which its soldiers and diplomats played significant roles in the turbulent 1990s. But Britain has virtually no economic interests in the Balkans, and for Balkan countries Britain’s real importance in recent years has been as a champion of enlargement in Brussels. Now that era of influence has ended. The summit concentrated on areas of mutual concern, which mostly means security. At the summit, the six agreed to share police and intelligence data in the fight against organised crime and terrorism.

Despite Brexit, Britain is big enough still to play a role in the Balkans, according to Senada Selo Sabic, a Croatian analyst, by working closely with EU partners as “a benign third actor”, in contrast to other meddling outsiders such as Russia. On the second day of the summit, planes from the British Royal Air Force streaked overhead celebrating its 100th anniversary. Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, made a speech. But the final press conference with Angela Merkel and Theresa May struck a sour note. No questions about the Balkans were taken. The moment was hijacked to make statements for domestic-news consumption. Misusing these Balkan summits for domestic politics is par for the course, argues Florian Bieber, an Austria-based analyst of south-eastern Europe; he thinks it is time to ditch the Berlin Process.