“Today, in the Council of the European Union, we decided to send a message – a message that the Western Balkans are part of Europe, despite the delay caused by the council’s October decision not to launch the accession negotiations. We decided to send a message to the countries of the Western Balkans that we want them in our European family, and to the European Commission that there is a way to move ahead with this enlargement, by adopting a new enlargement procedure.
The views submitted by France mark a new course. We expect the Commission to listen not only to France, but to all of the countries, and to come to us very soon with a new framework within which we will at long last be able to launch this process of enlarging the EU in the Western Balkans.”
November 19, 2019