EU leaders on Thursday did not overcome Bulgaria’s objection to Northern Macedonia’s accession to the bloc, prompting several Western Balkan leaders to be angry at how EU aspirations across the region ‘have been hampered as a result.
“I will be direct,” North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevsky said angrily as he addressed reporters after the meeting. “What is happening now is a serious problem and a serious blow to the credibility of the European Union.”
There were glimpses of hope that Thursday’s summit in the Western Balkans and EU leaders could lead to a compromise between Bulgaria, which has been blocking Northern Macedonia’s EU accession in a year-long dispute. related to history and language. But it quickly became clear Thursday morning that those hopes would soon be dashed.
Following the meeting, which preceded a two-day summit of EU leaders, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama criticized Bulgaria and the entire EU enlargement process.
“Bulgaria is a shame, but it’s not just Bulgaria,” he said. “The reason is the twisted spirit of enlargement, its totally crooked spirit. Bulgaria is its most striking expression. The spirit of enlargement has gone from a shared vision of an entire community to the kidnapping of member states individuals “.
Rama was especially poignant in his comments. He criticized Bulgaria for making the EU “powerless”. He referred to the protagonists perpetually condemned to purgatory in “Waiting for Godot.”
The EU’s prospects for the Western Balkans have once again come into the spotlight amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led Kyiv, as well as the upcoming Moldova and Georgia, to apply for EU membership. On Thursday, EU leaders will nominate Ukraine and Moldova as official candidates, advancing with agility that has bolstered the time other EU candidates have been waiting in the bands.
In the Western Balkans, Northern Macedonia has been a candidate for the EU since 2005. Serbia then won the nomination in 2012 and Albania joined in 2014. The waiting game has left the region’s leaders complaining.
“My country Northern Macedonia and the Republic of Albania, but also the region, we can not get caught in this situation because a single country simply fails to coordinate and ensure the unblocking of a European path for us” , said Kovachevsky.
In a last-ditch effort to move forward on Thursday, the French EU presidency last week unveiled a proposal to break the deadlock.
But the plan was a ban for northern Macedonia, Kovachevsky said, denouncing it as “unacceptable.”
Thursday’s meeting had a dose of chaos before it began, with some regional leaders threatening to boycott Bulgaria’s long-standing obstruction.
Bulgaria has also fallen into a precarious political situation just before the meeting, with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov losing a vote of censure, making him the outgoing leader of the country. When he entered the summit, Petkov said he would leave the responsibility to the Bulgarian parliament to move the process forward, with the next elections on the rise.
“I will say that I promised the Bulgarian people that this decision should be taken by the Bulgarian parliament,” Petkov promised. “Only the Bulgarian parliament is the institution with the highest representation. I will always keep my word.”
“We look forward to a discussion in parliament soon,” he added later. “The delay won’t be long.”
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that an agreement between Skopje and Sofia was “a little too soon”.
Still, other EU leaders, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, insisted that progress could be on the horizon.
“Nothing is ever easy in the Balkans, but here I think you could see a 50, 60 percent chance of a breakthrough next week,” Rutte said.
Maïa de La Baume contributed to the report.