BRUSSELS: North Macedonia is likely to win European Union support to start membership talks later this year, diplomats say, but its Balkan neighbour Albania faces opposition in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Despite EU rhetoric that the bloc needs to accept new members from the Western Balkans to cement their European path and offset Chinese and Russian influence, anti-immigration sentiment has raised doubts in some northern EU states.
Backed by a number of EU governments and the European Commission, Albania and North Macedonia had hoped that the bloc’s Europe ministers would give the go-ahead to membership talks
at a meeting next Tuesday in Luxembourg.
That would have cleared the way for approval by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on June 20-21.
But neither country will be given the green light then, diplomats and EU officials said, even though 13 EU countries including Italy and Poland, the European Council’s President Donald Tusk and the Commission have publicly called for formal negotiations to begin. Now, the latest agreement is to reach a deal among EU governments in September, but only for North Macedonia, which is also set to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2020.
“North Macedonia has a good chance (for EU membership talks), given the historic resolution of its name issue,” one senior EU official said, referring to a decades-old dispute with Greece that blocked its path to the EU and the Nato alliance.
The name change from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Republic of North Macedonia has given Skopje momentum and is likely to persuade Paris, Berlin and The Hague to back EU talks.
“But Albania is still a big issue for some governments. It is not looking so promising,” the official said.
Albania — which is already a Nato member — has made only limited progress in combating money laundering, EU and US officials say, despite firing corrupt judges and prosecutors.
Four other Western Balkan nations — Bosnia, Kosovo and the two frontrunners Serbia and Montenegro — are also seeking EU membership. In June 2018, France and the Netherlands unexpectedly blocked the start of EU talks for Albania and North Macedonia, seeking more reforms. — Reuters
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