North Macedonia and Albania want to become part of the EU. EU Council President Charles Michel is now hoping for a quick start to negotiations.
A week before the planned EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels, EU Council President Charles Michel spoke out in favor of the swift start of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.
The matter has “top priority,” said Michel on Thursday at a joint press conference with North Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski in the summer resort of Ohrid on the lake of the same name.
In March 2020, the two Balkan countries received confirmation from the EU that they met the conditions for starting accession talks. However, the EU country Bulgaria is making demands on North Macedonia and is threatening to veto the start of accession talks. Among other things, Sofia wants to ensure that the rights of the Bulgarian minority are enshrined in the North Macedonian constitution.
Michel could not say whether the June 23-24 summit will actually break the blockade. “At European Council meetings, we are never sure what the outcome will be,” he continued.
Pendarovski warned that his country’s constant postponement of EU integration “undermines the credibility of the EU as a whole”. The fact that an EU member state sets bilateral conditions for a candidate country also creates a “dangerous precedent” that could bring the EU enlargement process to a standstill. In view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, however, the EU enlargement has a special geo-political dimension.
Source: Stern
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