Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Balkans reporter Michael Martens predicts that, after the experience with Zoran Zaev, no other Balkan politician will be willing to hitch his wagon so closely to the European Union. Martens notes how Zaev made huge concessions so that Macedonia would be able to open its EU accession talks, only to be promptly betrayed.

In his editorial, titled “Bye-bye, Balkan”, Martens suggests that the EU needs to find some other model of approaching the Balkans, short of enlargement, considering that the previous policy of enlargement is no longer valid.

There is no more European perspective for the Balkans, Martens insists, believing that the experience with Zaev is the last straw that broke the policy.