On Wednesday, 1 July, the European Commission finally presented the EU Council with the draft framework for accession negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia.
Requested from the Commission by Member States in March 2020 (see EUROPE 12453/20), these frameworks were initially expected in early June (see EUROPE 12497/25).
These frameworks—based on the revised enlargement methodology—establish the guidelines and principles for their accession negotiations and are divided into three parts: principles governing the accession negotiations, substance of the negotiations, and negotiations procedure.
According to an EU Council source, they will be presented to permanent representatives (Coreper) “as soon as possible” and will then be examined in detail in the working group dedicated to enlargement (COELA).
The German Presidency of the Council has provisionally planned to place both negotiating frameworks and the internal provisions for accession negotiations on the General Affairs Council’s agenda in the autumn. In a virtual briefing of the press on Thursday, 2 July, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas hoped that the first intergovernmental conferences with Albania and North Macedonia will be held under the German Presidency of the Council. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)