28 minutes agoEU Council discusses enlargement reform today
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)EU ministers will discuss the situation in the area of enlargement and accession policy at a meeting of the Council of General Affairs in Brussels on Tuesday, November 19th. The ministers will first review the French proposal for reforming enlargement policy, but no concrete results are expected, the Council of [...] announced.
The ministers will first review the French proposal for reforming the enlargement policy, but no concrete results are expected, the EU Council announced.
We do not know how concrete we can be, but we certainly want to send a positive message to the region” The EU Council said.
The EU Council announced that EU and European Affairs Ministers (GAC) will discuss the situation in the area of enlargement policy and the accession process as the last point on the agenda.
This should only be the first step for the renewal of enlargement policy, as well as the trust between EU member states and Western Balkan countries,”, the EU Council sources said.
It is also expected that France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Amelie de Montchalin will submit proposals from Paris for changing enlargement methodology.
Last week, France presented the so-called “proposal to the member states, describing four principles Paris views as the basis for a new methodology of EU enlargement.
Since the deadlock of opening accession negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia in October, France has been striving for a more gradual EU accession, opening EU structural funds to candidate countries, but also for a stricter policy of conditioning and the return of the enlargement process.
In Brussels, they say the French proposal is a “subject for discussion” and that the final form of possible enlargement methodology reform must depend on the consensus of all member states.
It is also remembered that most member states, except for the Netherlands and Denmark, opposed Paris in his decision to block the opening of accession negotiations with Tirana and Skopje.
It was the very members of the Visegrad Group, as well as Austria and Italy, who demanded that the issue of enlargement be placed in the EU agenda as soon as possible so as to determine “working and age”, that is, the “unblock” and determine the Western Balkans' path to the EU as soon as possible.
For now, the goal is to agree and determine by the spring of 2020 to start accession negotiations with Albania and northern Macedonia, respectively, to restore mutual confidence and partnership at the EU summit for the Western Balkans scheduled for May 2020 in Zagreb.
