SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
Macedonia will have to still wait for EU membership negotiations to be opened. On Tuesday afternoon, in Luxembourg, France persisted in its blockade of the decision and found support for its stand in regards to Albania in both the Netherlands and Denmark, too. The last chance for a positive decision will be the EU leaders’ summit, which will start on Thursday. European Council Donald Tusk said he would put the item for negotiations on the agenda of the summit. That means that the topic will definitely be discussed. Paris adhered on Tuesday to the demand for a reform to the negotiations process first. Finland’s FM, Tytti Tuppurainen, said that it had unfortunately not been possible for a unanimous solution to be reached. Germany and many other EU countries reacted by stating that they didn’t understood France’s behaviour. According to German Minister for Europe Michael Roth, his country’s Government is very disappointed because it has failed to deliver on what it promised several times. The EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, too, expressed disappointment. He apologised Skopje and Tirana for the blockade. The Commissioner hopes that France, the Netherlands and Denmark will change the stand until the start of the summit. The hope remains that Macron will change his views, as a result of the announcements that have arrived from Germany that the country will not give up on its intention to deliver on its promises to Skopje and Tirana. According to sources from the German Government, Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to raise the issue once again during the joint meeting of the French and German Governments in Toulouse on Wednesday. If that attempt, too, fails, the source explained, Merkel will put the topic on the table at Thursday’s summit, too. “That’s not a topic we will allow to be left out,” the German official added.
