Okay, I got it. I will give three short responses to your question.
Number one is that, because the international community came to the region, it brought a new idea that this region should be part of a larger integrated Europe. In the middle of the vote, it slowly gave up on that idea and focused on other challenges, including Ukraine—Crimea in 2014—the Arab Spring and many other challenges Europe faced, as well as the migration crisis some years ago.
Number two is that we saw a decline in democratic progress in some parts of Europe, and that decline affected the ability of the countries to fulfill the benchmarks to succeed in European integration.
Number three is uncertainty. Both the western allies and the actors in the region have enabled third actors—Russia, China, Arab countries, etc.—to get involved, to exploit the corrupt nature that exists in many other countries, to get a stronger footprint and to ensure that their values and the way that they act can be sustained in the Balkans.
It's a mixture of different reasons, but despite the challenges, the western Balkans region of today is much different from what it used to be 25 to 30 years ago. We have made progress, but that progress is still not enough to make the region sustainably peaceful and fully integrated in a larger integrated Europe.
