EU stalls on Balkan bids Belgium

European Union leaders have failed to agree on launching membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, in an embarrassing climbdown that could risk inflaming the volatile Balkans region.

The two countries had expected to receive a green light yesterday to begin negotiations on joining the bloc, a process which could take several years.

The European Commission, which supervises entry talks, insists that both have met all the criteria for admittance. EU leaders had promised a final decision by the end of October.

For now, a decision is unlikely until May 2020 at the earliest.

French President Emmanuel Macron won’t allow any new countries into the 28-nation bloc until its enlargement procedures have been improved, while the Netherlands opposes Albania’s candidacy and disputes the commission’s assessment.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the meeting, called the non-decision ‘‘a mistake’’.

Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras – who supported North Macedonia’s name change from Macedonia in an effort to set aside years of tension between the two countries and open the way for EU membership – tweeted that the failure was ‘‘a message of weakness and defeat for the European project’’.

The constant expansion of the EU over the years has complicated decision-making in the world’s biggest trade bloc, and ‘‘enlargement fatigue’’, as some have termed it, has set in. Turkey’s membership talks are virtually frozen.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama regretted the deadlock. He said it was ‘‘linked with an open confrontation within the EU itself’’ over its enlargement process and internal debate.

North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski urged the nation not to be disappointed. ‘‘I’m convinced that if we are working together, we will succeed,’’ he said. ‘‘We have the right to be part of the common European home.’’

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned in May that any failure to recognise the efforts of the two countries ‘‘undermines stability and seriously discourages further reforms’’.