EU Dream on Hold for Balkan Nations as Accession Talks Are Delayed

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union put off a decision on starting accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, highlighting continued resistance among governments to a new enlargement wave that would see poorer countries from the Balkans join the bloc.

Despite a recommendation from the European Commission last month to start accession negotiations, EU governments said on Tuesday they didn’t have enough time to assess the issue and vowed instead to give a response to the two states by October.

The delay could raise pressure on the North Macedonia government in Skopje, which spent political capital in a deal with Greece to change the former Yugoslav Republic’s constitutional name. Tuesday’s decision adds to signs that the dispute with Greece over the Macedonian designation wasn’t the only hurdle to the Balkan nation’s European prospects. Countries such as France, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark resisted opening accession talks at this stage.

Read More: North Macedonia’s Leader to Change Cabinet Lineup Before EU Talks

Western EU governments are exasperated by the failure of other eastern nations, which joined the bloc in 2004 and 2007, to uphold the rule of law and fight corruption, and so are wary of admitting new members to the world’s largest trading club, where people, goods and services can move freely. Countries including Poland, Hungary and Romania -- among the largest recipients of EU structural funds and agricultural aid -- are at loggerheads with the commission over their democratic standards, and the bloc’s executive arm has so far failed to force them to fall in line.

Tuesday’s statement reiterates that accession of new members to the EU should take into account its “capacity to integrate new members.” The reference was inserted at France’s insistence, according to an EU diplomat familiar with the meeting.

The communique by EU governments, which also assesses the state of accession negotiations with Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey, repeats 13 times the need that these countries reinforce the rule of law and the importance of the fight against corruption another seven times.

The October delay to accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia also coincides with the scheduled departure of the U.K. from the EU. Britain was the main proponent of the previous enlargement waves and then opted to leave the bloc, after a referendum in which immigration from poorer EU member states was a key theme for proponents of Brexit.

Any further enlargement will be subject to “rigorous conditionality,” while ensuring “that the EU can maintain and deepen its own development,” according to the statement.

--With assistance from Slav Okov.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman, John Martens

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