20
October 2019
NEWS
France Sinks EU Hopes of North Macedonia, Albania After days of wrangling at the European Council, France refused to budge from its opposition to giving North Macedonia and Albania a start date for membership talks – leaving EU enlargement policy in a state of confusion. SINISAJAKOVMARUSIC | BIRN | SKOPJE
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U leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday failed to persuade France to allow a hoped-for start to accession talks for North Macedonia and Albania – and also failed to agree on a written conclusion, which, in the absence of a date for EU talks, would have sent a positive message to Skopje and Tirana about their further engagement in the process. “The European Council will revert to the issue of enlargement before the EU-Western Balkans summit in Zagreb in May 2020,” was the only official conclusion regarding the dashed hopes of the two countries. “We have agreed that we will remain focused on the subject and will return to it before the Western Balkan summit at spring next year,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Brussels on Friday, expressing her disappointment. The deadlock on enlargement drew sharp criticism from other EU leaders. The outgoing Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, tweeted that it was a matter of “extreme disappointment” and that the citizens of the two Balkan countries were now “rightly disappointed to the bone”. “The responsibility for this failure is not with the countries [North Macedonia and Albania] who hoped rightly for a positive decision. They delivered! It was the EU which failed to deliver because of internal issues. This damages the EU’s credibility not only in Western Balkans but beyond,” Hahn added in a related tweet. Austrian Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein on
German Chancelor, Angela Merkel and French President, Emmanuel Macron. Photo: AP
Friday called the failure to agree on accession talks “regrettable”. “I have already exchanged views today with the prime ministers of both states and expressed my disappointment.” Both the Albanian and North Macedonian leaders were “very disappointed,” she said. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed hope that “this disappointment and anguish will not plunge [North Macedonia and Albania] into despair”, and added that Italy would remain close to both countries. The failure to yield any breakthrough followed a reportedly a tense but ultimately fruitless debate on Thursday night between EU leaders that lasted well past midnight. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who will soon become the new President of the European Council, said that the debate on enlargement had been “intense” but that
the leaders had decided it was impossible to find agreement. According to an unnamed diplomatic source present at the debate, cited by North Macedonia’s 360 degrees news portal, after it became clear that several compromise solutions – including one for a parallel decision on a start of accession talks along with a decision to back France’s demand for reforming and toughening the accession process – would not pass, a draft was prepared that would have postponed the decision for opening of accession talks to next spring. But this was allegedly blocked by several countries seen as strong supporters of North Macedonia, led by Slovenia, Malta and Bulgaria, which argued that it was better to have no conclusions than harmful ones that offered no guarantees about the future. “A new postponement, without a commitment that there will not be yet another
postponement in April, is additionally harming EU credibility and discouraging the candidate countries, the anonymous diplomat was quoted as saying on Friday. Bulgarian Prime Minister BoykoBorissov sounded more upbeat, saying the lack of a written conclusion at least “shows that the vast majority of countries opt ‘for’ the European perspective of both countries”. Disappointment was clear in North Macedonia and in Albania. “The least that the European Union owes the region is to be straightforward with us. If there is no more consensus on the European future of the Western Balkans … the citizens deserve to know,” North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister, Nikola Dimitrov, tweeted on Friday. “While we wait for a renewed consensus, we must continue to defend true European values at home,” he added. Amid opposition calls for a swift general election after the failure in Brussels, President StevoPendarovski called for national unity. “Now is not the time for splits and apathy, or for negative feelings toward some countr ies. We need unit y,” Pendarovski said in his public address on Friday, adding that he had called a meeting of top political leaders on Sunday.Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told the media that he blamed the “no” from Brussels on Europe’s internal divisions. He also said he would rather continue working on reforms than accept opposition demands for snap general elections. “If early elections would have solved the problem between Germany and France, I would have seriously considered that option,” he said.
Albania Blames Likely Accession Talks ‘No’ on Divided EU Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said if his country fails to get a start date for EU membership talks this week, it is purely down to internal divisions inside the EU – not because of any failings on the part of Albania. GJERGJEREBARA AND MAJAZIVANOVIC lbanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has tried to counter criticism over the expected decision by the European Council on October 18 not to open EU membership negotiations with Tirana – claiming that any such decision will be the result of EU internal disagreements. It would not be related to the progress achieved by his country toward fulfilling the criteria, Rama maintained. Speaking on a Facebook post, Rama told supporters on Tuesday that France was blocking the opening of negotiations because President Emanuel Macron was demanding that EU reform must precede further enlargement. “Emanuel Macron is not ready for a stronger push for the European integration of the Western Balkans without pushing first for the reformation of the Union,” Rama said. “It is very important to understand that this is not an approach against Albania and
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North Macedonia, or against the perspective of the Western Balkans in general,” Rama stressed. EU ministers on Tuesday failed to agree on whether to start talks that could lead to Albania and North Macedonia joining the EU, mainly because France opposes any agreement until “the entire accession process is reformed” . Rama insisted that the expected negative decision had nothing to do with the state of preparedness of Albania or the fulfillment of conditions by his government. “This has nothing to do with what we have done or not done to deserve a yes,” he said. Acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj went further by posting a message in English on Twitter, saying the credibility of the EU was now in danger and warning about a boost for its “strategic rivals” in the Western Balkans. “We don’t need a narrow, insular, inward-looking & disengaged EU but one that
is open, fair & a beacon of hope in troubled times,” Cakaj said. Albania has remained in the waiting room to open negotiations since 2014, when it was granted candidate status for membership. Last year, the European Council promised to open negotiations with Albania this year on condition it made further progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime.However, the German parliament – while endorsing a positive decision in late September – added a longer list of conditions for Albania, mostly related to the same issues of crime and corruption. Meanwhile, North Macedonian Prime Minister ZoranZaev, who is in the same position as Rama, said that he did not object to further reforms within the EU but did not see why the enlargement process could not be run in parallel with this. “Member states must not forget why the EU was formed at all – for common inter-
ests, but also for Europe to be a leader in democracy and in all other fields,” Zaev told the Southeast Europe Business Development Network event in Vienna. “We want to be a part of it. Sometimes I think that we, the candidate countries, believe more in European values than the EU member states themselves,” he added. Ahead of the EU meeting, Northern Macedonia President StevoPendarovski warned in an interview with Austria’s Die Presse, that if accession talks with his country did not begin soon, the EU would lose all credibility and interest in it will fall. Recalling that North Macedonia had changed its constitutional name in order to further its European integration, he said: “Citizens have asked us why we needed to change the name of our country. We told them, so that we could become part of the EU. We have fulfilled everything. “Now citizens are asking why delay is coming again,” the President underlined.
