Generating a sense of momentum
By Toby Vogel - 12.07.2012 / 05:47 CET
High-level dialogues as alternative route.
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Move to give Moldovan parliament the power to sack constitutional-court judges prompts sharply worded criticism by the EU. |
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Commission says Serbia, Kosovo should be allowed to take next step toward EU after a landmark bilateral deal. |
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WHICH WAY TO EU MEMBERSHIP? José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister of Macedonia. REUTERS
Fact file
Progress report
The countries of the “Western Balkans” – a term invented by the EU to designate the countries of former Yugoslavia minus Slovenia plus Albania – are at very different stages in their bids to join the EU. In addition to Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina they are:
Croatia is on schedule to become a member on 1 July 2013, after five years of accession negotiations. Montenegro began its membership talks at the end of last month. Serbia became a candidate for membership in March and hopes to get the green light for the opening of negotiations by the end of the year. The expected formation in the coming weeks of a coalition government of Socialists and the nationalist Progressives could delay the talks.
Albania submitted its application for membership in April 2009, in a move that was generally seen as premature by the European Commission and the member states. It has made little progress towards the opening of talks, primarily because of the extreme polarisation of the country's politics.
Kosovo has not been recognised by five member states – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain – and has therefore been unable to apply for EU membership. The European Commission is preparing a feasibility study for a pre-accession agreement with Kosovo that it hopes to adopt in October, but it is not clear whether the necessary unanimity is possible among member states.
Move to give Moldovan parliament the power to sack constitutional-court judges prompts sharply worded criticism by the EU.
Commission says Serbia, Kosovo should be allowed to take next step toward EU after a landmark bilateral deal.
Sets up ethnic self-rule for four majority-Serb municipalities in the north.
Leaders have “some hours left” to find compromise.
Progressives could form single-party government.
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