Carl Bildt says the spectre of the Balkan wars has come back to haunt him while he was there last year. He says EU leaders would be well-advised to deal with this powder peg, "or wait for it to deal with them." Even Germany raised its concern in November 2014 about tensions in the region. Bildt - as EU’s Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia, then Co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, finally, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans - reminds Europe of the 2003 EU summit in Thessaloniki, when "delegates solemnly vowed to bring all of the Balkan countries into the bloc as members." He says the EU has been kicking the can down the road since the "immediate problems" there "had subdued." While assuming "they had secured peace for the region," they returned to the "business-as-usual" mode.

The author also criticises Jean-Claude Juncker's adherence to the "status quo" after he assumed office in 2014, "by declaring that the EU would undergo no further expansion during his five-year term." As the EU has other crises on its mind, Russia has exploited the vacuum and sought to project power across a region it sees as within its sphere of influence. The author says Juncker's stance is "politically disastrous," because with no hope for EU-membership in sight, "reform and integration efforts now extinguished, and nationalism in the region predictably started to rise again." It is once more embroiled in a crisis: Borders are being questioned, ethnic tensions are bubbling up, and land swaps are being mooted as a last resort to prevent a slide back towards violence.

The former Yugoslavia disappeared from the map of Europe after 83 years of existence. Its breakup led to a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies between 1991 and 2001, with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre being the worst atrocity since World War II. Jingoism had once again replaced communism as the dominant force. A federation of six republics emerged. Their borders were drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Serbia also had two autonomous provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Slovenia and Croatia were the first to break away, and they are the only EU members in the Balkans. In Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, ethnic tensions are on the rise. The wars of the 1990’s that pitted Muslims against Orthodox Christians may not return, as "the conditions today are very different from what they were then." Yet, firebrands and "individual hotheads can ignite fires that are difficult to contain."

The author says "the only way forward" is to resolve the conflicts, "while also accelerating European integration." EU leaders need to show their "will and means to act, by deploying EU Battle Groups to conduct military exercises in the region," and to show that their "military forces are not paper tigers." Unfortunately there is no appetite for "further EU enlargement," and it will take time to accept new members. In order to motivate them to continue their reforms and qualify for membership, the bloc should "replicate the EU Eastern Partnership, with the creation of a Balkan Partnership, while always keeping membership on the table. At the same time, the EU needs to step up its political engagement in the region." The author ought to know that despite rising nationalism, there is little appetite for conflict among ordinary people there. Many still hope for a future in Europe, assuming if they are member states of the EU, it would keep hawkish "ghosts at bay."

