Merkel positive about EU prospects of west Balkan countries

Berlin (dpa) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her weekly video message on Saturday that she thinks there are good prospects for Albania, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join the European Union.

"In all the difficulties that we currently have there has been progress," she said ahead of an official visit to the countries later in the week.

She said it was only through their prospects for EU membership that the rival countries could settle their differences.

Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have residual emnities from the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and former communist Albania and Serbia have clashed diplomatically over the secession from Serbia of the ethnically Albanian province of Kosovo.

Merkel is scheduled to make a two-day visit to the west Balkan countries on Wednesday and Thursday. She was expected to address the dramatic rise in the number of asylum seekers in Germany from the region.

Merkel announced that she would also address the desperate plight of the Roma people in the region who suffer considerable discrimination.