Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

EU enlargement still 'hopelessly stuck'

  • Skopje: Bulgarian veto holding up accession talks (Photo: Mike Norton)

North Macedonia and Albania have voiced dismay after Bulgaria upheld its veto on Western Balkans enlargement earlier this week.

"It's Europe's problem now. It failed to stop one country blocking the enlargement process because of a bilateral issue," North Macedonia's prime minister Zoran Zaev said in Skopje on Wednesday (23 June) after meeting Albanian prime minister Edi Rama.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Our position is clear - European integration cannot be held hostage by bilateral relations," Zaev added.

"This is a big disappointment and huge failure of the European Union, and a bad message to the whole region," Rama also said.

He compared the situation to a famous play by Irish writer and existentialist Samuel Beckett, called Waiting for Godot, in which the main character, Godot, never arrives.

"But contrary to Samuel Beckett's characters ... we are not really waiting, we are going forward, pushing and pushing," he said.

They spoke after EU affairs ministers discussed prospects for opening accession talks with the two countries in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

But Bulgaria refused to change its line - that North Macedonia must first formally admit that both its language and ethnic identity are really Bulgarian.

And Albania's fate is tied to the veto, amid earlier plans for both countries to proceed in parallel.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any progress. Bulgaria fully supports the Euro-integration of North Macedonia and Albania, but not without conditions," a Bulgarian diplomat told EUobserver.

"We insist that the implementation of the Neighbourhood Agreement by North Macedonia be included in the future negotiation framework for Skopje's accession to the EU," he added, referring to an agreement on the cultural dispute.

"We are open for constructive dialogue with the next Slovenian presidency to find a positive solution," he added, as Ljubljana prepares to take over the EU chairmanship in July.

"As far as I understand, 26 member states tried to give arguments against the Bulgarian veto, but with no success," a North Macedonian diplomat said.

Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, also held a meeting with Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić earlier on Monday in which Brnabić called for opening new chapters in its ongoing accession talks.

But Serbia, as well as Kosovo's EU future, is tied to their future agreement on normalising relations.

Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti met with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday and Macron urged "Kosovo and Serbia to act as Europeans and engage in reaching an agreement and finding a compromise".

But the first and only time Kurti met with Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, on 16 June, did not go well.

"He [Kurti] wanted to hear when we will recognise an independent Kosovo ... and I said: 'Never'," Vučić said at the time.

Meanwhile, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands are continuing to veto EU visa-free travel for Kosovo even though it has met all the conditions set out by the European Commission, EU officials said.

And if the EU, along with Bulgaria, was hoping for breakthroughs under Slovenia's leadership, its hopes might well be dashed.

The only contribution the nationalist-populist Slovenian leader Janez Janša made to the enlargement process so far was to circulate an informal paper calling for the break-up of Bosnia, before disowning the plan, when it emerged the rest of the EU, as well as the US, thought it risked reigniting war.

Speaking to EUobserver in a recent interview, Robert Cooper, a retired EU diplomat, said: "The most important strategic act the EU did was the grand enlargement of 2004. The most important thing it could do now would be to get serious about enlargement again in the Western Balkans".

But speaking about the process as it looks today, it was "hopelessly stuck", the North Macedonian diplomat said.

Interview

Does North Macedonia really exist?

Its language and history give North Macedonia its identity for president Stevo Pendarovski, but, for Bulgaria, neither of them are real, in a dispute holding up EU enlargement.

EU fails to deliver on Albania and North Macedonia

Denmark, France and the Netherlands opposed opening talks on EU accession with Albania and North Macedonia in a blow that may invite greater Russian influence in the Balkan region.

Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access

70 percent of northern Gaza is facing famine, new data shows. There is one shower per 5,500 people, and 888 people per toilet. 'How can you live in these conditions?" asked Natalie Boucly of UNRWA at the European Humanitarian Forum.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us