France firm on Balkan talks:

Europe

Macron

France stuck to its hard line against European Union membership talks for North Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday, setting up a showdown between French President Emmanuel Macron and fellow EU leaders later this week in Brussels.

Europe ministers, making a third attempt since June 2018 to approve membership talks for the Balkan hopefuls, discussed in Luxembourg opening a path for Skopje and Tirana, with broad EU support and backing from the United States.

But just as those discussions were getting underway, a French presidency official in Paris said Macron’s government would not agree to open talks now, even if Paris did support eventual membership for North Macedonia and Albania.

“These countries will be part of the European Union one day ... but it is too early to open the legal process towards enlargement,” the presidential official said, referring to the term for admitting new members.

In Luxembourg, Amelie de Montchalin, France’s European affairs minister, was blunt, saying there could be no way forward before a reform in how and when candidates for membership are vetted on EU targets, which range from economic policy to human rights and the rule of law.

France says the EU faces too many challenges – including Britain’s planned exit; China, seen as a “strategic rival”; security threats posed by Russia; and migration – to let in two more states from the Balkans, a region still scarred by the legacy of 1990s wars and struggling with crime and corruption.

But the French stance has raised concerns in Brussels about further delays in an already protracted process that could backfire by spurring Balkan states to cultivate closer ties with Russia and China.

The six Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, all of which apart from Albania emerged from the 1990s disintegration of Yugoslavia, are considered future EU members. (RTRS)