On Wednesday leaders from the six western Balkan countries hoping to join the European Union meet their counterparts from the bloc’s member states. They will discuss the EU’s “growth plan”, which aims to absorb the countries into individual aspects of the union, such as its single market, before they become full members. The region’s accession process began in 2003 but has generally slowed. Bulgaria, already an EU member, is blocking North Macedonia; Serbia’s dispute with Kosovo, its former province, hampers the accession of both; and Bosnia’s Serb leadership is more interested in destroying Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state than joining the EU.