TIRANA, March 24/ATA/- General Affairs Council of the EU (Ministers of EU Affairs) gave a green light to opening of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania in today’s video-conference.
The news was made public by Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, after a video-conference of the General Affairs Council. The EU has changed rules for meeting since the coronavirus outbreak.
The General Affairs Council on Tuesday 24 March has been replaced by a video conference of ministers responsible for European affairs, starting at 12:00.
Ministers exchanged their views on enlargement and the stabilisation and association process, focusing on Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia.
The Council last discussed the opening of accession negotiations with the two countries at its meeting on 15 October 2019. The European Council on 17-18 October 2019 decided to revert to the issue of enlargement before the EU-Western Balkans summit in Zagreb in May 2020.
Since then, the Commission has set out its proposals for strengthening the accession process with the overall aim of enhancing credibility and trust on both sides and yielding better results on the ground. It has also presented updates on reform progress in Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia.
On this basis, ministers held today a political debate on the opening of accession negotiations with the two countries where they have unanimously agreed to start accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia./a.i/
