Veto after Veto: EU Enlargement Is Dead, What Follows Instead?

The principle, according to which the reforms pave the way to EU membership is no longer in force for the countries of the Western Balkans, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in an extensive analysis cited by Deutsche Welle and BTA.

No one has understood this more clearly than the Republic of North Macedonia, which even changed its name at Greece's request so that it could start negotiations with the EU. After the Greek veto, however, French one followed, then Bulgarian, this time because of the history and language of the Slav Macedonians.

The enlargement process abounds with political traps that have little to do with the reformist efforts of the candidate countries, the author of the analysis says.

The Balkans are no longer surprised, since French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear in Belgrade July 2019 that the EU will not welcome new members until it reforms itself.

We are reminded that this is not a new story - as early as 2005, the Berlin Foundation for Science and Policy (SWP) noted in its publication the "growing fatigue from enlargement" further asking "is full EU membership really the only option for long-term stabilisation" of the Western Balkan countries.

"This question sounds more topical than ever," notes author Michael Martens.

"If membership is not real, how then should the EU deal with the region? How to maintain its influence and stand up to political rivals like Russia, China and Turkey? There are a lot of ideas, many are not new," he adds.

One of these concepts was published in The New York Times as early as May 2003 by the then prime ministers of Serbia and Albania and the presidents of Croatia and Macedonia. At the time, they asked to let the countries of the Western...