EU to start accession talks with Albania, N.Macedonia

BRUSSELS

EU ministers have reached a political agreement on opening accession talks with the Balkan nations of Albania and North Macedonia, Andreja Metelko-Zgombic, Croatia’s state secretary in charge of EU affairs, announced at an online press conference Tuesday.

In a videoconference, ministers in charge of European affairs also approved a European Commission proposal for a new procedure for accession talks for the Western Balkans.

Due to the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus outbreak, the EU ministers’ decisions need to be confirmed by a written procedure.

“We hope to start the negotiations very quickly,” Oliver Varhelyi, EU commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy, told the same press conference.

He congratulated the two countries for their progress and the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU for making the agreement possible.

“We have shown our determination to reach our goals,” he said referring to the difficulties of opening the accession talks.

Last October, EU heads of states and government did not approve the start of the enlargement process, a development then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called a “historic failure.”

At that time France criticized the enlargement procedure, while Denmark and the Netherlands were not satisfied with Albania’s political reforms.

Based on these remarks, Varhelyi presented a revised methodology for enlargement in February.

The document introduced the possibility of speeding up the negotiations process in case of significant progress in certain policy areas.

At the same time, it enabled closed negotiation chapters to be reopened if the candidate country fails to deliver the promised reforms.

New country reports were also published earlier this month showing significant progress in Albania and North Macedonia.

Varhelyi called the recent Albanian reforms “promising signs” that show “tangible, visible and high-level” improvement.

He also said the EU had delivered on its promises and credibility.

EU heads of states and governments are supposed to endorse the start of negotiations during their videoconference on Thursday.