FT: Macron Warns against Hasty EU Enlargement at the Sofia Summit

President Emmanuel Macron of France has issued a stark warning against hasty EU enlargement in a sign of the tough fight ahead for six western Balkan countries that want to join.

At a meeting in Sofia, Mr Macron said the EU had been too keen to expand since its last full summit with the western Balkan states in 2003.

"These last 15 years have shown a way that weakens Europe by thinking of enlarging it," he told reporters. Mr Macron said he supported "anchoring the Balkans with Europe and towards Europe" but warned that the EU must "look with great prudence and rigour at any new enlargement".

Diplomats say France is sceptical of a European Commission recommendation to open talks for Albania and Macedonia to join the EU. The bloc's leaders could vote on that proposal at a summit next month.

The French president has previously said that the EU must reform itself before thinking of taking on new members. The accession of all six western Balkan states would expand the EU to 33 countries — compared with 15 in 2003 — even if the UK leaves as scheduled next year.

An EU leaders' summit declaration balanced enthusiasm for enlargement among many new bloc members with the scepticism of some longer-standing states. It highlighted the importance to EU security of a strategically located region that has also drawn interest from capitals from Moscow to Beijing. It said the EU wanted to "support the region's political, economic and social transformation", including through "tangible progress in the rule of law, as well as in socio-economic reforms".

France and other influential countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, have concern about crime, corruption and governance in the region comprising the five states of former Yugoslavia...

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