Despite Portugal’s best efforts to reach an agreement, Bulgaria once again prevented, on Tuesday 22 June, the General Affairs Council of the EU from reaching a unanimous agreement on the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and, as a consequence, with Albania.
“Despite all our efforts, it was not possible to agree on a negotiating framework for North Macedonia and Albania and to hold the first intergovernmental conferences with these two candidates”, stressed Portuguese Secretary of State Ana Paula Zacarias at the end of the EU Council, held in Luxembourg.
She announced that the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council, whose mandate begins on 1 July, would continue efforts to reach an agreement, hoping that the intergovernmental conferences could take place “as early as possible in the next quarter”.
The deadlock has lasted for months due to a bilateral dispute between Skopje and Sofia. One source denounced the “lack of responsibility of some States”.
The spokesman for Bulgaria’s permanent representation to the EU, Dimitar Yaprakov, told EUROPE that his country fully supports the European integration of all Western Balkan countries, “including the Republic of North Macedonia” and that it is devoting “a lot of time and effort” to rebuilding trust with Skopje. “Bulgaria insists that the implementation of the Neighbourhood Agreement by the Republic of North Macedonia should be a condition of the future negotiating framework for Skopje’s accession to the EU”, he explained. For Mr Yaprakov, Sofia is open to a constructive dialogue with the upcoming Slovenian EU Council Presidency “in order to find acceptable formulations for the negotiating framework”.
According to an EU source, during the EU Council debate, Bulgaria explained that it had fears for its territorial integrity.
German Secretary of State Michael Roth did not fail to publicly underline his annoyance at the situation. “Please let the bilateral issues be dealt with bilaterally, without blocking the whole process. Let us think strategically and realise that we must fulfil our obligations to Albania and North Macedonia now and that we have no interest in leaving a strategic vacuum there. Thank you!”, he posted on Twitter.
On their arrival at the EU Council, Slovak State Secretary Martin Klus and Lithuanian Deputy Minister Arnoldas Pranckevičius said that starting accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia was a matter of “EU credibility”.
According to Ms Zacarias, the ministers reiterated “the strategic importance and geopolitical reality of the EU enlargement process, which represents an investment in peace and democracy, prosperity, stability and security in Europe”.
Furthermore, according to an EU source, there was no question, during the ministerial meeting, of decoupling the EU accession processes of Albania and North Macedonia. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)