The heads of government and state of the European Union have not yet reached an agreement at their summit in Brussels on official accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania. France is currently blocking any EU expansion because Paris wants a reorganization of the current EU first.
The Netherlands opposes the admission of Albania because the country still does not do enough to combat organized crime, and has not sufficiently curbed corruption within the Albanian judiciary.
A decision to open accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia has been postponed until a future EU summit, but it is not excluded that the issue will be raised again on the sidelines of the summit today. After six hours of discussion, the EU leaders had not yet reached conclusions.
The pressure on French President Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Rutte was great. German Chancellor Merkel, outgoing and incoming European Commission Presidents Juncker and Von der Leyen, EU President Tusk, European Parliament President Sassoli, and the Eastern European countries are all in favor of starting membership talks. Still, France, the Netherlands, as well as Denmark and Spain, did not relent.
Almost all EU countries believe the two Balkan countries should have a prospect of EU membership, but French President Emmanuel Macron does not want new candidates while the accession process is not reformed. Germany, among others, sees major risks in the new delay and argues that due to previous promises the EU is losing its credibility.
Others also say steps must be taken to prevent the Balkan countries from "drifting away from Europe." Besides Albania and North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo also want to join the EU; Serbia and Montenegro are already in negotiations.
For Albania, it is "a clear no, impossible, excluded," according to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Admission of North Macedonia is in a much better position, but there is still a lot of homework to be done. In the past, a European perspective has been given to the Balkan countries, and there is also a "geopolitical argument," said the Dutch Prime Minister.