BRUSSELS – Foreign and European affairs ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovak Republic, Italy and Slovenia sent a letter to European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker in which they support the reform of EU enlargement process but also urge for a quick opening of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, Politico reports.
“It is true that the current accession process in the Western Balkans progresses slowly and somewhat unevenly. We are therefore ready to engage constructively in an effort to improve this process. We will do so on the understanding that … it enables the EU to reach consensus on opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia in March 2020,” the letter states.
The signatories also called on the Commission to come up with proposals by January 2020 “to enhance the effectiveness of the accession process as an instrument to support reform and integration efforts in the region.”
According to Politico, the letter still does not explicitly support the French proposal for the reform of the process, which was laid out in the non-paper released yesterday to the public.