Albanian media outlets are reporting that the country will hold a meeting to open its first EU integration cluster on October 15th in Luxembourg. With this, Albania will effectively “decouple” from Macedonia in its EU integration, as Macedonia remains stuck and is unable to begin the accession talks because of the Bulgarian veto.

EU leaders were wary of dividing the two countries, fearing that it would further erode faith in the EU process in Macedonia and in the wider region. But after years of blockades from Bulgaria, it appears that the EU will allow the one country that can go ahead to do so.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said that he hopes for Albania, Serbia and possibly Macedonia to hold accession talks in October.