The European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, once again called on the Member States to agree to the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania at the General Affairs Council on 15 October.
“The European Commission is really waiting for a green light for the opening with both countries. This was already clear a year ago (in June 2018) and in June of this year”, he explained to a group of journalists, including EUROPE, reminding them that Skopje and Tirana had met the conditions agreed by all Member States. “They deserve to open up”, he insisted, adding that a positive signal against them would be a positive signal for the entire Western Balkans region.
While, according to Mr Hahn, “some countries are hesitant, a large majority is in favour” of opening up, the Twenty-Eight are still divided on the issue. “It's Thursday, it's more like the beginning of negotiations. People are starting to understand what is at stake”, the Commissioner wanted to reassure, as a new meeting of Member States’ ambassadors is scheduled for Friday. According to him, “things are in progress, it is a usual attitude that things take until the very last moment”.
France is still opposed to opening negotiations and would like to come back to the issue in 2020. On this blockage, the Commissioner explained that “at least (he saw) the will (on the part of Paris) to find a solution”.
And while some Member States may be tempted to accept the opening of negotiations with Skopje, but not Tirana, Mr Hahn warned against decoupling. “It's going to be a mess if only one of the two countries gets the green light. This will have an impact on the whole region”, he said. “I will do everything possible to avoid it”, he warned, saying he was “very confident” that this was not an option. In his view, such a solution would be “a huge political mistake”.
More generally, Paris is not satisfied with the methodology of the accession process and would like to see changes. “The chapter system does not work and there is no possibility of going back. It's like a slide: once you start, you slide to the end”, one source close to EUROPE regretted. “I would be the last to say that there is no room for improvement [in the system]. We can always talk about the method [...], but it should not be seen as a kind of hostage”, Mr Hahn said. Without calling into question unanimous decisions to open accession negotiations and for the final decision on a country's accession, he considered that it should be possible to decide by qualified majority on the opening and closing of negotiating chapters. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant, Mathieu Bion and Hermine Donceel)