Making the best out of a bad hand

By Mario Holzner* At the European Council meeting on 17th and 18th October it was concluded that: ‘The European Council will revert to the issue of enlargement before the EU-Western Balkans summit in Zagreb in May 2020.’ This implies that Albania and North Macedonia will not start their negotiations for EU-enlargement, although they fulfil all the necessary technical requirements and have the support of the European Commission, the European Parliament and most of the EU member states – except France (and in the case of Albania also Denmark and the Netherlands). Under the pretence to first reform the accession process…