EU warns Trump to stay away from internal politics that could initiate new war in Europe
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LONDON: (APP) European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has asked Donald Trump's administration not to encourage other EU-member countries to leave the bloc or "a new war" may break out in the Balkans.
In an interview published Friday in the Financial Times, Juncker said he communicated his concerns during Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Brussels last month, during which he also expressed surprise over Trump's support of Brexit.
The US president has said that Britain's vote to leave the European Union was a good idea and that other countries would likely follow suit.
"I told the vice-president, 'Do not say that, do not invite others to leave, because if the European Union collapses, you will have a new war in the western Balkans'," Juncker told the paper.
Of the seven countries that emerged out of the former Yugoslavia, ravaged by war in the early 1990s, only two have become EU member states: Slovenia in 2004 and Croatia in 2013.
