The Serbian state television RTS reports from Brussels that France demands a delay in the opening of accession talks with Macedonia and Albania for March 2020.

France is the most vocal opponent of enlargement toward the Balkans and stands in the way of the hoped for opening of accession talks this October with both countries. Other countries, like the Netherlands and Denmark, have opposed the opening of accession talks with Albania alone, and others still, like Greece, oppose decoupling Macedonia from Albania.

According to RTS, France will also demand a serious rethinking of the enlargement process and assuring that any gains in the candidate countries are permanent before they are allowed to get closer to the EU. French leaders have been worried that the EU is becoming too watered down and unwieldy, and also view the further waves of enlargement as a British driven idea to make the EU an economic and less of a political project.

The proposed change in the methodology would ensure realistic and irrevocable progress in the reforms conducted during the accession talks, considering the cases of stagnation and failure in the candidate countries. Still, most EU member states believe that the discussion to alter the enlargement methodology should not block the opening of accession talks with Albania and “North” Macedonia, because it would be seen as just another excuse, an EU source told RTS.

The European Council on this issue is expected to begin in five days. The talks are being conducted in the shadow of Brexit, which also needs to be settled this month.