(ANSA) - BRUXELLES, 04 OTT - The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, hold a speech this morning in Vienna for the centenary of the foundation of the Republic of Austria. "I do not think at all that we will let the Western Balkans in the European Union at a hell pace without considering what is going on and what will happen", he said in a passage referring to the six countries negotiating to join the EU, "but I also know that if we remove the accession perspective to these countries, then what we experienced in the 1990s will be in the region in the long term".

The Balkan region is "a dramatically complicated region of Europe and we have to take care of it", Juncker added. Therefore the President of EU Commission called on Austrian government to play its "central role" to "contribute to the European perspective of the Western Balkans".(ANSA).