European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Friday that he supports the further enlargement of the EU to Western Balkan countries, calling it a "high time" to do so.

At the 9th Croatia Forum in southern Croatian coast city of Dubrovnik, he said it was high time the EU embraced the Western Balkans more firmly, according to Croatian News Agency Hina.

He conceded that a long financial and economic crisis that the EU had faced had politically put enlargement issue on the back burner.

However, he said that everything must be done to look at this issue as part of the solution and not as part of the problem.