Accession of the Balkan states: EU insists on reforms

The European Union is sticking to a possible enlargement to include six Balkan states but demands reforms from the candidates. Several heads of state and government as well as EU Council President Charles Michel said after the so-called informal meeting in Slovenia that Serbia, Albania, northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina should one day become EU members. A date for accession, which Chancellor Angela Merkel had also opposed, was again not given. France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that before enlargement the EU must first reform its own decision-making processes.