Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

A Turkish state-run aid agency sent aid packages to North Macedonia, Lebanon and Tunisia amid novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
In North Macedonia, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) distributed 2,500 packages of food, cleaning and hygiene products with the help of a local non-governmental organization.

European affairs ministers agreed Tuesday to allow Albania and North Macedonia to begin European Union membership talks, paving the way for the bloc's leaders to sign off on the move that could end years of setbacks and disappointment for the two Balkan nations.

Greece has decided to close its borders with Albania and North Macedonia, with some exceptions, stop flights to and from Spain and end passenger ship service to Italy.

Also, cruise ships will no longer be allowed at Greek ports.

Greek citizens, as well as permanent residence of Greece, will still be allowed to cross from Albania and North Macedonia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she would push for a start to European Union accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia at an EU summit in March. 

The President of the European Council said on Friday the bloc will be holding intensive discussions in coming weeks on how future enlargement should be managed.

Charles Michel, who was in the Albanian capital, Tirana, to meet with Prime Minister Edi Rama, said all member countries "are unanimous on one point — that the Western Balkans' future should be toward Europe."

The eight crew members of the Greek-flagged tanker Happy Lady - among them five Greek nationals - who had been abducted by pirates in an attack near the coast of Cameroon were released on Wednesday.
The tanker was attacked while anchored two nautical miles from Limboh port in Cameroon on December 21.

Never-ending accession

French President Emmanuel Macron, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/MICHEL EULER / POOL MAXPPP OUT

While few tourists from neighboring countries opted to visit northern Greece over Christmas - as evidenced by the low occupancy rates at hotels in Thessaloniki - it was hard to find a room in the center of the northern port city over New Year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs and Minister of Immigration and Asylum Jean Asselborn agreed on Bulgaria and Luxembourg to work together on the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries after the lack of a decision for the start of the negotiations with the Republic Northern Macedonia and A

Zoran Zaev, prime minister of North Macedonia, said in an interview that he feared a return to his ethnically divided country's "bad past", including a narrowly averted civil war in 2001. Edi Rama, prime minister of Albania, said in a separate interview that his country risked becoming "collateral damage" from the EU's divisions over enlargement, "Financial Times" reports.