CoR Plenary (June 2022)

Albania has been an EU candidate country since June 2014. The Council decided on 25 March 2020 to open accession negotiations, after the country had made some progress towards meeting the political criteria and the five key priorities that need to be fulfilled to become an EU Member State; the European Council endorsed this decision the following day. However, negotiations have not yet started, and Albania is advancing towards EU membership at a very slow pace. The main obstacles remain flaws in the functioning of its judiciary, in the fight against corruption, and in safeguarding media freedoms and minority rights. Parliament's position on the European Commission's 2021 annual report on Albania is scheduled for a plenary vote in May.

North Macedonia was the first western Balkan country to conclude a stabilisation and association agreement with the EU in 2004; just one year later, it became a candidate country. However, disputes with Greece blocked any progress in accession negotiations until 2019. Pending bilateral issues with Bulgaria still need to be resolved as a matter of priority to unlock the negotiations. Parliament's position on the European Commission's 2021 report on the country is expected to be voted during the May II plenary session.

Turkey's relations with the European Communities/EU date back to 1959, with milestones including the Ankara Association Agreement (1963) and the customs union (1995). Turkey is a key strategic partner of the EU on issues such as migration, security, counter-terrorism and trade. Yet, after democratic backsliding in the country, the Council froze its accession negotiations. Overall EU-Turkey relations have improved slightly in the past year. The Parliament's position on the Commission's 2021 annual report is expected to be voted in plenary in June 2022.

Stabilisation of the internal political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that celebrated the 30th anniversary of its independence on 1 March 2022 but risks internal implosion, remains a priority for the European Union. To this end, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for ‘urgent progress in the electoral and constitutional reforms’ that are also important ahead of the general elections scheduled for 2 October 2022. This view echoed the European Parliament’s resolution on the 2019-2020 Commission reports on Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopted on 24 June 2021, that called on Bosnia’s authorities ‘to resume inclusive negotiations on electoral reforms’, and regretted the ‘reluctance to implement these rulings by eliminating all forms of inequality and discrimination in the electoral process’. In the context of the current political crisis that is threatening the constitutional settlement in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), an analysis of the Ljubić case (2016) and associated cases, in particular the Sejdić-Finci case (2009) and the Zornić case (2014), can be of great relevance.

In 2008, Montenegro applied for EU membership, and accession negotiations began in 2012. Montenegro has opened all 33 negotiation chapters, three of which have been provisionally closed. Public opinion surveys show that 75 % of the population support the country’s accession to the European Union. A new government led by Zdravko Krivokapić took office in Montenegro on 4 December 2020. During its May 2021 plenary session, the European Parliament is due to debate a resolution on the Commission's latest country reports on Montenegro.

The EU opened accession negotiations with Serbia, a country with a population of 6.7 million, in 2013. Serbia got off to a strong start, but progress has stalled in recent years. Unresolved regional issues, in particular the stalemate of the political dialogue with Pristina, as well as lukewarm progress in rule-of-law reforms, are blocking accession negotiations. Parliamentary elections held in June 2020 have not yet provided the expected momentum, and the risk is that the country will progressively turn to Russia and China, confirming its ambiguous geopolitical orientation, which was also criticised by the European Parliament.

• The Thessaloniki Summit (2003) opened the door to a European future for the Western Balkans. However, since then progress towards EU membership has been slow. The countries of the region have struggled to implement economic and political reforms, and the rule of law remains particularly problematic. The 2018 Enlargement Strategy for the Western Balkans gave new impetus to the enlargement policy, offering the six countries of the region a 'credible strategy' through enhanced EU engagement and indicating 2025 as a possible accession date. In June 2019, and again in October 2019, the Council postponed the decision to open negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, despite the positive recommendation from the European Commission and the agreement of the European Parliament. By delaying this decision, the European Union was sending an ambiguous message to the region, reducing its credibility and potentially fuelling nationalistic rhetoric, whilst opening the door to the influence of third-country powers, in particular China and Russia.

On 22 April 2020, the European Commission submitted a proposal for a decision for macro-financial assistance (MFA) to support ten enlargement and neighbourhood partner countries in their efforts to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, for a total amount of €3 billion. The Parliament is expected to vote on its position on the legislative proposal during the May plenary session.

Unequivocal support for the European perspective of Western Balkan countries was reiterated by participants at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brdo on 6 October 2021, as well as in the European Commission's October 2021 enlargement package reports. Nevertheless, the Commission insists that all countries in the region need to continue to accelerate and deepen reforms on independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption, and the fight against transnational organised crime. Progress on the rule of law is part of the ‘fundamentals’, that remain open throughout accession negotiations, as it is considered essential and will determine the overall pace of the negotiations. International cooperation, such as agreements and joint actions with Europol, Eurojust, and Frontex are crucial as well. The European Parliament is set to vote during the December 2021 plenary session on an own-initiative report on cooperation in the fight against organised crime in the Western Balkans.

Decentralisation, and implementation of the principle of subsidiarity, are at the heart of both EU accession negotiations with the Western Balkan countries and their accession-related reforms. As the region's six countries differ in population size, territory and history, their decentralisation models differ from each other as well. The European Commission and the European Parliament are closely monitoring these countries' overall progress in multi-level governance and in the implementation of the EU acquis on an annual basis.

The countries in the Western Balkans are traditionally a focus of Russian interests. The Russian Federation has strong historical ties with the Western Balkans and holds a relative soft-power attraction for them, yet its influence and economic impact in the region are declining, as investment and aid by the EU-27 and other players, such as China, have been dwarfing Russian investment. This ‘At a glance’ note has been produced at the request of a member of the European Committee of the Regions, in the framework of the cooperation agreement between the Parliament and Committee. It updates a publication by Martin Russell from July 2017.

In this Institutional Paper the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs brings together into a single document the economic chapters of the European Commission's country reports for the seven enlargement countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo(*), Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

The article reflects on Croatia’s EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2020. The programme for Croatia’s Presidency had four pillars: a Europe that is developing, a Europe that connects, a Europe that protects and an influential Europe. The article focuses on the various challenges faced by the Croatian Presidency during its six-month term.

Enlargement is the most significant debordering policy of the European Union. In an analysis of debates in the European Parliament and a sample of member state national parliaments, this paper examines whether EU enlargement discourse has been characterized by a politicized rebordering process since the mid-2000s.