France wants to change the rules for countries to join the EU club
Some French officials have conceded that making that point without first coming forward with ideas for a new system was potentially a tactical mistake, opening up Macron to criticism.
"There will be the usual pompous framing by Paris," the diplomat said."All this can't mask the fact that the French proposals are not really about reforming the accession process but about putting an end to EU enlargement. They are a poisoned chalice for countries like North Macedonia that have done much to fulfill strict EU conditions in order to start accession talks.
"If we wanted to be against the enlargement process, it would be very simple, we could just veto," the official added."That’s not what we are doing." But the French paper says,"The profound political, economic and social transformations required for a future accession to the European Union continue to be too slow and the concrete benefits for citizens in candidate countries remain insufficient."
But in a sign that the EU faces continued competition for influence in the Balkans, Pendarovski also used the Paris event to"Most importantly, coming with a French-only proposal is not the way to keep enlargement as a consensual matter"An EU official said the paper"looks like it is written without full knowledge of what is already available to Western Balkans countries, and certainly with the agenda of slowing the process by front-loading difficult stuff, such as environment.
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