This week, again, EU heads of state and government must decide to start accession talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania - or not.
Leaders of the EU's main institutions emphasised that the two countries "have done what we asked them to do".
Last June a decision was postponed because of internal divisions. Some 14 central and eastern European countries pushed for the start of accession talks.
But France and the Netherla...
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Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. This article has been adapted from one of her columns in NRC.