Macron Vetoes EU Accession of North Macedonia, Albania

The European Council has voted against the accession of Albania and North Macedonia to the EU. (Flickr)

French President Emmanuel Macron vetoed North Macedonia’s and Albania’s attempts to join  the European Union on October 18 at the Brussels summit of the European Council, reports Balkan Insight. While Macron cast the lone “no” vote against North Macedonia’s accession plans, Al Jazeera notes that France was joined by Denmark and the Netherlands in voting against Albania attempt.

Balkan efforts to join the EU first materialized in 2003, reports The Guardian, when Western hopes were high for the potential integration of the former Yugoslav and Soviet states. Now, with a French roadblock sitting between the current EU and its southeastern neighbors, leaders of these candidate countries have begun to wonder if European promises of unification will be fulfilled.

“The least that the European Union owes the region is to be straightforward with us,” tweeted North Macedonia’s foreign minister. “If there is no more consensus on the European future of the western Balkans. . . the citizens deserve to know.”

Leading up to the October 18 summit, North Macedonia and Albania enacted significant reforms and worked closely with the EU to further their respective candidacies. North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev decided to formally change his country’s name to settle a dispute with Greece and clear the way for possible EU membership, a move the Financial Times claims entailed significant political risk.

Albanian reformers allowed the EU even deeper access, reports the Financial Times, permitting the EU to vet Albanian judges and allowing the EU border agency Frontex to have oversight of Albanian police operations. Months before the summit, the European Commission recognized the significant changes North Macedonia and Albania had instituted to meet EU criteria on economic, human rights, and anti-corruption measures. Despite this official recognition, the two countries still failed to win over France.

Macron’s veto was due less to displeasure with the two countries’ reform efforts and more to his desire that the EU bolster its existing institutions before pursuing enlargement, the Financial Times reports. Macron also expressed concern that, if granted immediate full-benefit membership to the EU, Albania and North Macedonia’s reform efforts may begin to unravel.

"This is a dispute about vision," Macron told the BBC. "The enlargement rules need reform. . . We should do more to help those countries develop, not just make pledges."

Many European leaders were quick to criticize Macron’s prioritization of EU structural reform over the accession of Albania and North Macedonia. Along with other EU officials, European Commission Chief Jean-Claude Junker called the French veto “a major historical mistake,” according to the BBC. Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn agreed, tweeting: "To refuse acknowledgement of proven progress will have negative consequences, including the risk of destabilisation of the Western Balkans."

The EU has long seen Balkan integration as a stabilization technique in the historically volatile region, the BBC reports. According to RFE/RL, the German Minister for European Affairs warned that Macron’s veto opens a "possible political vacuum” in the region that "will be filled by other powers that certainly have little in common with democracy and the rule of law."