Right now, the story of the European Union and the Western Balkans trying to find a shared path to EU integration for the region could have as its soundtrack The Beatles’ I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
 
Summits do not necessarily mean momentum, but the fact that two gatherings are planned – that may not necessarily be seen as rival events and perhaps in the long term could prove complementary – might be interpreted as an indication of the willingness of both sides to move ahead, allowing for the background of the repeated calls from EU leaders for the reforms needed for the way to be cleared towards membership of the bloc.
 
Slovenia and Croatia are to hold a conference in March 20 in Brdo pri Kranju, to be entitled "Together for the European Union: Contributions of the Western Balkans to a European Future".
 
The summit is being seen by its initiators as an important signal about willingness for regional co-operation. In turn, sending such a signal to the EU could be encouraging for a bloc likely retaining some reservations about a region which, to put it mildly, continues to have a number of troubled issues in bilateral relations among its states.
 
Even so, the Brdo summit is not without its troubles, notably some back-and-forth about one particular issue in getting the states of the former Yugoslavia around one table: Serbia and Kosovo. As is well-known, Belgrade rejects as illegitimate the February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence in Pristina, meaning that the Brdo summit’s organisers face what may mildly be described as a protocol problem.
 
Reportedly, the Spanish presidency of the EU will be represented at the Brdo summit, while Spain is a co-organiser with Italy of an EU – Balkans summit planned for Sarajevo in May or June.
 
Madrid and Rome are reported to have circulated a joint letter to other EU states setting out a vision for the Western Balkans, in preparation for the Sarajevo summit.
 
According to Kosovo daily Koha Ditore, the letter says that security and prosperity in the Balkans have an impact on the daily lives of EU citizens, and the stability of the region is of crucial importance for the security of Europe.
 
The only long-term solution for the region would be its integration into the EU, the letter reportedly says.
 
Certainly, at least some leaders in the Western Balkans seem to be underlining their desire to improve mutual relations. Leaders in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia have agreed on regular top-level meetings.
 
An especially optimistic view of EU relations with the Western Balkans was taken on March 10 2010 by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
 
Speaking in a European Parliament plenary debate on EU foreign and security policy, Ashton held up the Western Balkans as a model for the bloc’s foreign policy strategies.
 
"In a way, the Balkans is the birthplace of EU foreign policy," Ashton told the European Parliament. "More than anywhere else, it is where we cannot afford to fail," she said.
 
Ashton said that the aim of her recent visit to countries of the Western Balkans had been establish good working relations with political leaders; engage with civil society about what belonging to Europe could mean; and ensure co-ordination among the different EU actors on the ground.
 
"One conclusion I drew is that the region is making progress – even if it is uneven and incomplete," she told MEPs.
 
"The European perspective remains the overarching framework - both as our objective and as the main incentive for reform."
 
Repeating the familiar refrain from Brussels, Ashton said that progress on the path to the EU depends on the commitment to reform at home, on human rights, the rule of law and regional co-operation.
 
"We are backing up our strategy with all available foreign policy tools," according to Ashton.
 
"In Kosovo we have our biggest civilian mission – and it's a success," she said.
 
"In Bosnia we have adjusted ALTHEA as the situation has stabilised and are developing a training programme. And we are pushing the European message hard in the run-up to the October elections.
 
"Throughout the region we are making progress on visa liberalisation and people-to-people contact," according to Ashton.
 
This meant, she said, that the EU’s Balkan strategy "is what it should be: strategic in its objectives, multi-faceted in terms of instruments and tailor-made in terms of implementation".
 
However upbeat Ashton may have intended to sound, there does not seem reason to believe that for the Western Balkans, the path to the EU is about to be upgraded to a high-speed motorway.
 
Belgium’s state secretary for European affairs, Oliver Chastel – whose country is to take over the rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of 2010 and is unwilling to see any countries admitted to the bloc unless each country is completely ready – said in a March 9 interview with EUobserver.com: "We believe that it isn't good to patch together a Western Balkans dossier, although that whole region has a European perspective. The speed of the path toward the EU of every country should be determined by the pace of the reform process and by the implementation of the EU standards. We want to apply such politics during our presidency".
 
There are other factors and other complications. Slovenia and Croatia are hardly the only countries in South Eastern Europe taking initiatives on regional co-operation (again, hardly unmindful of the goal of EU accession for those countries not yet members, which makes EU member Slovenia and EU candidate Croatia an interesting partnership on the issue); Greece has put forward its Agenda 2014 proposal for the EU accession courses of the countries of the Western Balkans.
 
And in this latter case, there is another illustration of the complexities; Athens is seeking to build stability and security in the region – and as such was praised by US president Barack Obama when he received Greek prime minister George Papandreou in Washington on March 9 – yet has bilateral difficulties with Turkey, over Cyprus and a number of other issues, and is locked in a standoff with Skopje about the use of the name Macedonia.

In turn, Greece is by no means alone in putting forward initiatives: EU member Bulgaria, though its Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov, has articulated a desire to be the bloc's point person in the Western Balkans.
 
So the themes come up time and again – for the countries of the Western Balkans to reform, to end corruption, to resolve disputes and build regional co-operation, and all while EU leaders underline the need for EU integration as a gateway to stability; yet in the context of rivalries, troubled histories and some seemingly intractable disputes. That is why the soundtrack must be I Wanna Hold Your Hand; because in the Western Balkans, it seems impossible that Love Me Do will be forever inappropriate.