Western Balkans’ future ‘should be toward Europe,’ EU to discuss enlargement soon – Brussels

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Friday that the bloc will be holding intensive discussions in the coming weeks on how future enlargement should be managed.

Michel, who was in the Albanian capital Tirana to meet with PM Edi Rama, said all member states “are unanimous on one point – that the Western Balkans’ future should be toward Europe,” AP reports.

Hopes of Albania and its neighbor North Macedonia to launch EU membership talks last year were dashed by French President Emmanuel Macron in October, when he asked for a reform of the process for admitting countries to the 28-nation bloc.

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, had recommended starting the membership process last year. Brussels is preparing a new ‘methodology’ which, Michel said, will be open for discussion in the next few weeks.