You paint a rosy picture of the relationship between the Western Balkans and Brussels (“The Pull of Brussels,” October 15, 2011). True, Croatia is cleared to join in 2013, Macedonia and Montenegro have a candidate status since 2005 and 2010, respectively, and Serbia may soon get such a status, as well. You do admit that not all is well in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania, but you feel that the pull of the European Union is unmistakable in all these countries. The plight of the euro, not to mention the sorry state of other integration programs, such as Schengen and Bologna, is no deterrent, you explain, because all the countries in question see the accession process as a guarantee of modernization. Every year the European Commission issues progress reports for would-be members, in which they “see themselves in the mirror,” you cite a diplomat in Brussels. I wonder. First of all, the mirror is distorted because of the Union’s growing woes. Perhaps more important, people in the Western Balkans do not see the Union in terms of modernization, but as something palpably better than the utter mess at home, which they feel is beyond their power to fix. This is true even in Croatia, let alone further down the line. And it is reminiscent of the Italian eagerness to join the Union so many years ago. They hoped that someone would come to their rescue, like the proverbial knight on a white horse. These remain vain hopes, it goes without saying.