The Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag approved the opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia and Albania. The proposal will now move before the full parliament.

Proponents of the expansion, mainly in the German social-democratic SPD party, had their wish to bolster the leftist governments of the two Balkan countries. The request to grant this over the summer was denied by the conservative CDU/CSU parties.

The two countries were hoping that Germany will be their main proponent against more skeptical countries such as France and the Netherlands, but instead, Germany turned out into a problem herself, when Chancellor Merkel failed to push the proposal through the Bundestag this summer. The European Council should decide on the proposal in early to mid October.