Since United States President Donald Trump took office last year, Washington and Brussels have clashed over trade, support for Ukraine and military spending.
Now, a new flashpoint is the Western Balkans.
The region, positioned between the interests of the EU and the US, as well as the influence of Russia and China, has become an object of competition between great powers, due to its strategic position and fragile economy.
Nothing illustrates this more clearly than recent deals by American investors for energy projects in Albania, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina - countries aiming to wean themselves off dependence on Russian supplies.
"President Trump is opening a new era of cooperation with Southern, Central and Eastern Europe," said US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright at the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The clash of agendas became apparent last week, when the United States made its largest public investment in the Western Balkans in years, signing several multibillion-dollar deals for gas exports and artificial intelligence development in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia.
The focal point is the $1.5 billion Southern Interconnector pipeline between Bosnia and Croatia, which connects Bosnia to both the Croatian liquefied gas terminal on the island of Krk and the wider gas network in Europe.
"There is an acceptance that this is a region with great risks, and the more you make these things public, the more you provoke a backlash - from Moscow, from Beijing, even from parts of Europe," a congressional aide told Radio Free Europe.
"The strategy is to move capital and projects faster than politics. If you present everything as a geopolitical competition, it slows down the process. If you call it investment and infrastructure, it moves forward," added another.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the poorest countries in Europe, needs things to move, and fast.
Currently, it is completely dependent on Russian supplies of fossil fuels, which come through the TurkStream pipeline.
The Kirkuk terminal is an important hub for American liquefied natural gas entering Europe, and the agreement also signed by the US will ensure that even more American energy reaches the region.
Balkan countries appear to be turning to the United States, after years of failing to secure funding from Europe.
“The lack of investment has been a long-standing problem in the Balkans,” says David J. Kostelancik, senior fellow in the Democratic Resistance Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
"By focusing on diplomatic engagement and facilitating financing, the US can increase investment in the energy sector, which enhances competitiveness and security, including cybersecurity and investment screening mechanisms that detect efforts by malicious actors to gain influence," he adds.
Both Brussels and Washington support the Balkans' separation from energy dependence on Russia.
But energy politics is now turning into a competition for influence, pitting the two capitals against each other.
To pave the way for the pipeline deal, Bosnia changed legislation to designate a private American company - AAFS Infrastructure and Energy - as the lead investor and developer.
According to company and project records, the director of AAFS Infrastructure and Energy is Jesse Binnall, a former member of US President Donald Trump's legal team, while his deputy is Joseph Flynn, brother of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The new law avoided an open tender procedure - which angered Brussels and led the organisation Transparency International to warn of setting a "dangerous precedent".
In a letter dated April 13, the EU ambassador to Sarajevo, Luigi Soreca, warned that the law specifically adopted for the pipeline project (lex specialis) could jeopardize Bosnia's access to the European energy market, as well as around 1 billion euros in funding from the EU's Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.
The Balkan country is part of the Brussels Energy Community, which extends its laws in this area to countries aspiring to join the EU.
While Sarajevo has been an EU candidate country since 2022, there is no indication that it will join the bloc anytime soon, as Brussels often complains about the lack of internal reforms.
Officials in Bosnia also say that the agreement with American investors comes as an effort to help the country move towards the EU's own goal of completely banning Russian energy imports by January 1, 2028.
This is a difficult goal for Bosnia, which has no gas production of its own and is completely dependent on Russia, which supplies it with about 225 million cubic meters of gas per year.
With the prospect of EU membership still distant, Bosnia appears to have chosen to ignore Europe's warnings to "carefully consider obligations" in signing energy contracts.
Bosnia even joined an American initiative to strengthen the region's energy supply.
Its Foreign Minister, Elmedin Konakovic, told Radio Free Europe's Balkan Service that "it was economically important for the country."
"This part of Europe is coming back to common sense. The path to prosperity is more, not less, energy," Wright said.
US economic interest in the region has been further boosted by the passage of the Western Balkans Democracy and Prosperity Act by the US Congress in February.
This act, among other things, commits the United States to intensify economic cooperation.
Last week, Kosovo's capital, Pristina, hosted a conference of American investors, aimed at attracting American businesses to invest in numerous projects, such as: a new bus station and a hospital in the city, the construction of a ring road, and numerous sports infrastructure facilities.
American investment group Pantheon Atlas signed a letter of intent with local partner Koncar Group to build an artificial intelligence and data center in Croatia next year, worth $58 billion and with a planned energy capacity of 1 billion gigawatts.
Meanwhile, in Tirana, Albania signed a 20-year framework agreement for the supply of US imports of liquefied natural gas, worth $6 billion. It will link local energy supplier Albgaz with US firm Venture Global and Greek company Aktor.
Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that other announcements are expected, but did not provide details.
They added that, while the current focus is on Albania, Bosnia and Croatia, there is a strong sense that this new policy aims to be regional.
Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro are seen as logical next steps if the first projects are realized, especially given the fact that Washington aims to build a more integrated energy and digital corridor in the Western Balkans.
