BRUSSELS – The four Western Balkan countries that have made the most progress in the EU accession process are clearly committed to implementing measures to strengthen the rule of law, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said after today’s discussions on the key findings from the EU annual Rule of Law Report, published in late July.
These reports examine the situation in all Member States and, for the first time, four candidate countries from the Western Balkans – Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, in the following areas: the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues related to checks and balances.
Today’s meeting, organised under the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council, was attended by the EU ministers responsible for European Affairs, as well the ministers for European integration from Montenegro (Maida Gorčević), North Macedonia (Orhan Murtezani) and Serbia (Tanja Mišćević), while Albania was represented by the Chief Negotiator with the EU, Majlinda Dhuka.
Didier Reynders stressed that the EU would continue to help the candidate countries from the Western Balkans to implement reforms in domain of the rule of law, noting that the enlargement process would continue to be “entirely based on the merits of each individual country”. He also noted that for now, four more countries have been included in the annual reports on the rule of law in addition to the member states of the Union, but that the list is planned to be expanded, in line with the progress made by other candidates for membership.
At a joint press conference with Didier Reynders, János Bóka, Minister for European Union Affairs of Hungary, stressed that the participation of the representatives of the four Western Balkans countries was on equal basis. He pointed out that during the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Hungary would try to provide a new impetus to the EU enlargement process, underling that that the EU is not complete without the membership of the Western Balkan countries.
After today’s discussions, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council also stated that the unwavering commitment to supporting the reform efforts of these candidate nations was reaffirmed.
“For the first time in the history of the European Union, we engaged in a discussion on general rule of law trends with the participation of four candidate countries: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Through today’s meeting, we reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to supporting the reform efforts of these candidate nations, preparing them for their future accession to the EU”, the Hungarian Presidency wrote on X.