Your leader and article about the Western Balkans are on the mark (“No More Brussels Bluff” and “Slowly toward Europe,” June 4, 2011). Now that Ratko Mladić is behind bars, Serbia is approaching candidacy for accession. After six years as a candidate, Croatia is about to get the accession date set, and 2013 seems to be the magical year. Montenegro is close to Serbia in terms of the accession process. Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania will be harder to bring into the process, but there are hardly any options for the European Union, as well as America, which has been deeply involved in the region. And this is something you leave out of both your leader and article, hopeful as they happen to be. Although there are no viable options for the Union, it is slow in realizing this simple fact. It is also clumsy in dealing with the situation, which could easily deteriorate and lead to serious trouble for Brussels. How can this be explained, though? The only explanation is that America has lost some of its drive under the bashful Obama administration, and that the Union is nowhere without America’s guidance and protection. To wit, your hopeful thoughts had better be read in Washington rather than Brussels.