Enlargement of the European Union

Stevo Pendarovski, who is attending the Paris Peace Forum, will have a meeting later on Tuesday with Emmanuel Macron, whose opposition last month at the European Council dashed North Macedonia's hopes of a start date for EU accession negotiations.

Macedonia and the entire region have no alternative but EU membership, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said today at a press conference in Ohrid after the end of the second meeting of the regional co-operation initiative.

Self-Harm

Was the European Council's decision not to open accession negotiations with the EU an act of historic self-harm? This is the argument made in one comment piece for Balkan Insight, originally published as part of BIRN's Western Balkans Stability Monitor.

In his report to the European Parliament on the Western Balkans, the Commissioner for Accession Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said that the prospect of EU accession was the biggest impetus for reforms and processes in the region, and when it came to Serbia, he said that the idea of an agreement with Kosovo would only make sense if there is a prospect of joining the EU.

President Stevo Pendarovski will meet his counterpart Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of next week's Paris Peace Forum in an attempt to convince the French President that North Macedonia deserves a start date for EU accession negotiations, it was announced on Tuesday.

With the tough topic of EU enlargement looming over Croatia during its EU presidency in 2020, many hope Zagreb can offer strong leadership on a policy that appears to be in crisis.

When it comes to Albania, many EU member states besides France had reservations about whether the country should be granted a date for opening accession negotiations, including Denmark and the Netherlands.

Macron has presented the fundamental argument that the entire EU enlargement process must be reformed before France will allow any country to start accession negotiations - which would then last for at least a decade.

That should happen at the next EU Western Balkans summit in May 2020, highlights the paper and adds that there are more models at stake, each heading towards offering a privileged partnership to candidate countries instead of enlargement, more precisely, economic integration without formal membership.

Montenegro was already making only slow progress in EU accession negotiations, before France sent a message to the region with its 'Non' to Albania and North Macedonia.