(ANSA) - BRUXELLES, 20 MAR - "I am worried about what is happening in the Western Balkans," external influences "are trying to distort them to bring the region out of the area of friendship and cooperation with the European Union", the European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said today during a conference on Albania at the European Parliament.

The extra-European financial presences in the Balkans "should make us reflect," Tajani pointed out. "I do not think it's just a desire to do business there but also an attempt to use the financial instrument to gain political control of the region." The EP President then stressed EU's desire to open its doors to the six countries of the Western Balkans and "prevent them from becoming a place of external conquest" and where people "cannot really choose their future." Western Balkans "must also help themselves," Tajani warned, recalling that there are "many risks" in the region, "from the infiltration of terrorism and the return of many foreign fighters in Kosovo, to the attempt to distort Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the arrival of many jihadists who aim to change the situation of interreligious dialogue and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims."(ANSA).