Orban: Balkans 'next big opportunity' for EU

The Balkans are likely to present "the next big opportunity" for the European Union, and the region could become the bloc's next economic motor, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, addressing the Conference of Speakers of Parliaments of the Visegrad Group and south-eastern Europe. The V4 and Balkan countries may end up building together the most significant economic area of the entire European continent, he said. Orban said the path to the EU for the peoples of the Balkans led through central Europe. The countries of the Balkans should not be made into a buffer zone but should instead be integrated into the bloc, he added.