Albania

Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk have made statements on Brexit's conclusions at last week's European Council, the European Union reported. They were also joined by Manfred Weber, with statements on Turkey and its Syrian operation. The issue of rejection of negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania was also addressed.

The US embassy in Tirana said on Tuesday that it is working on a blacklist of current and former officials in Albania who it considers corrupt and to be working against the interests of the United States.

"Observers in the region see France and The Netherlands' policy as not being fair and motivated by domestic politics and stereotypes," Bieber said. "This undermines the EU as being a fair player and having clear criteria, especially since the commission has given the green light for negotiation."

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has come forward with a fresh initiative to revive the EU enlargement process after North Macedonia and Albania did not get a start date for EU accession talks at last week's European Council meeting due to opposition from France.

The Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that it is looking into the incident at a school in the southern town of Prizren after the photo taken of the teacher and pupils holding a Turkish flag and saluting - an alleged tribute to the Turkish troops currently engaged in military action in Syria - went viral on social networks in Kosovo.

The EU's decision not to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania will have damaging consequences for the Western Balkans - and for the EU's transformative power in the region - analysts say.

"The leftwinger set to become Kosovo's surprise new prime minister has condemned the EU's decision to halt further Balkans enlargement, saying it showed western leaders had forgotten the lessons of two world wars and instead were in retreat in the face of fascism and populism", "The Guardian" reports.

It is a decision of the European Council not to open membership talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania. The decision, which deeply compromises the EU, as an institution that can be trusted as much as Donald Trump, but also a decision that puts Croatia in a terribly embarrassing position, writes the author Robert Bajrushi.

The decision was made on the meeting of the leaders of all parliamentary parties with the country's President Stevo Pendarovski held last night, which was scheduled last Friday after the European leaders decided to postpone the start for the opening of accession negotiations with Skopje.

Since the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit, every EU Commissioner and virtually every European head of state has told this region: "Your future is in the Union, the onus is on you to make it happen."

Well, the Macedonians are making it happen, as well as anyone else has in this region, especially given the scale of democratic backsliding that occurred under the previous government in Skopje.