Johannes Hahn

North Macedonia should start membership negotiations to join the European Union, the European Commission formally recommended on Wednesday.

The recommendation followed a meeting of the Commission in Brussels, said Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner in change of enlargement on Twitter. EU governments must agree to allow talks to start.

The European Commission (EC) will recommend opening accession talks for full membership of northern Macedonia and Albania by the end of May, reiterated EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who until now has only expressed confidence that this will happen.

The European Commissioner for Enlargement and Good Neighbourhood Johannes Hahn wrote in Twitter that it was time to finalize the historic project of uniting Europe and integration in the Western Balkans.

Florian Bieber spoke for Vienna daily Kurier to say that "great" powers want to deal with the Western Balkans now.

Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner responsible for relations with countries that aspire to join the bloc," has expressed the hope that the recent name deal between Greece and North Macedonia, could have a "domino effect" in the Balkan peninsula.

In response to a question from a Greek MEP over the appropriation by the Albanian state of land belonging to members of the Greek minority there, European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn reportedly said Monday that the European Commission is closely monitoring the situation throughout the country.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and the bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn on Friday hailed the approval by the parliament in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia of constitutional changes to rename the country "Republic of North Macedonia."

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has "good chances" of catching up with negotiations for European Union membership once the name deal with Greece goes through, the bloc's commissioner for enlargement, Johannes Hahn, has said.

Brnabic said after the meeting that she felt "support and gratitude to Serbia during her visit to Brussels for not imposing countermeasures against Pristina, which in particular contributed to regional stability."

The agreement was signed by Serbian European Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimovic and EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.

The funds will go to energy and environmental protection projects, as well as to participation in EU programs such as Cosme, Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, Joksimovic and Hahn said, the agency reported.