(ANSA) - UDINE, 14 MAG - BELGRADE, MAY 14 - Slovenian President Borut Pahor said he hopes that the process of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans could speed up and called it a "geopolitical necessity." Speaking today in Belgrade at the end of a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Pahor said that only in this way can peace, security, and stability be guaranteed in the region.

According to Pahor, there are currently two types of worrying tiredness: the EU's fatigue on the enlargement process and the weariness in several countries of the Western Balkans about reforms and a decline in confidence in the European prospect.

"This is not in the interest of either the EU or the citizens of the Western Balkans," the Slovenian president said, underlining this will be the key message to Brussels from the Western Balkans summit scheduled for May 17 in Slovenia, as part of the so-called Brdo-Brioni process. It would be fantastic, he added, if all the countries of the region or most of them could join the EU at the same time. Slovenia, a land of the former Yugoslavia that joined the Union in 2004 with the maxi-enlargement that saw ten countries join the EU at the same time - almost all members of the former Eastern Bloc - will take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council in July. Ljubljana intends to use this opportunity to help speed up the enlargement process. (ANSA).