Tuesday, June 26th., 2018
EU ministers postpone Albania and Macedonia accession decision
The two Balkan countries must make progress on improving the rule of law and fighting organized crime.
During a marathon session of the General Affairs Council, the majority of member countries argued in favor of opening membership talks now but France and Netherlands, with the backing of Denmark, were the main opponents, diplomats said.
However the two countries will have to show progress on making reforms in areas like battling corruption and improving their judicial systems. Those steps will be assessed in a future European Commission report and “depending on progress made” there will be an intergovernmental conference with Albania and Macedonia “by the end of 2019.”
The Commission in April gave its backing to the launch of accession talks and recommended that the Council follow suit, although it too noted some shortfalls in the two countries’ preparations.
The prospects of joining the queue to EU membership opened for Macedonia after it resolved a decades-old dispute about its name with Greece, which had blocked the accession process.
Opening talks would represent a clear indication that the bloc is ready to renew its expansion to the six western Balkan countries.
The language in Tuesday’s declaration allows the pro-EU governments of Macedonia and Albania to tell their citizens that the door to eventual EU membership is open. But for France and the Netherlands, cautious about expanding the EU to new countries, it allows them to say that no final decision has been taken.
The two countries have to show “a track record both in improving the rule of law and fighting organized crime. We’ll look carefully at next year’s Commission report to judge whether we see this progress,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok told reporters at the end of the meeting.