European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is one of the most outspoken supporters of the Zaev Government and the Prespa treaty, shocked Zaev supporters yesterday when he said that the European Commission will propose opening a “preparatory stage of negotiations”, which falls short of full accession talks with the EU.

Speaking at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), Hahn acknowledged that there are several countries, France and the Netherlands presumed to be the chief among them, who oppose enlargement, but pleaded with the Parliament that the EU credibility will be at stake if after all the concessions Macedonia made, it is rejected again.

We will make a recommendation for North Macedonia but also for Albania that they should enter the preparatory stage for accession negotiations. And this would be done officially, particularly following the positive developments in North Macedonia. It seems to me that this is more than appropriate, and a year ago we had a very positive stance among 25 to 26 member states on this issue. And now this whole issue of the name conflict has been satisfactorily resolved and I now feel we need to take the next step, Hahn told AFET members.

It’s been a decade since the European Commission first recommended that Macedonia opens accession talks – not enter a “preparatory stage” – but the move had been blocked by Greece at the level of the European Council. During this period, the Commission had offered Macedonia various instruments that look like enlargement but are not quite enlargement talks – most notably the HLAD talks. If, after the imposed and forced name change, Macedonia again receives some version of HLAD, and not actual accession talks, it would be a stunning rebuke of Zoran Zaev and his Government, which famously already celebrated the opening of accession talks in July 2018, when it interpreted the decision of the European Council to revisit the issue this July as a “done deal”, even issued a celebratory selfie.

With Greece presumably lifting its veto after the Prespa treaty, France and the Netherlands remain opposed to this move. France has objected to further diluting the EU and wants enlargement to happen only after President Macron’s reforms of the EU are implemented. And the Netherlands, after another round of electoral successes of its nationalist parties, is reluctant to admit two new Balkan countries with sizable Muslim populations to the EU. Hahn acknowledged that even after Greece has raised its veto over Macedonia, other EU member states remain opposed.

A year ago we had a very positive stance among 25 to 26 member states on this issue. And now this whole issue of the name conflict has been satisfactorily resolved and I now feel we need to take the next step. Why? Well, I think as is well known that any measure which affects the EU foreign policy and every individual step that is taken toward enlargement requires unanimous approval from all member states and with each individual level of this accession procedure there are criteria, benchmarks, pre-requisites which need to be fulfilled by our partners. And these are prerequisites which require unanimous consent of all member states. And I’m fully convinced that if our partners satisfy our criteria then it’s an issue of our credibility and our reliability. We also need to live up to our side of the bargain, Hahn said, openly pleading with the EU parliamentarians not to leave Zaev out in the cold.

Hahn assured the Parliament that, even if Macedonia and Albania open accession talks, the process won’t end soon, and will likely take a decade. He also presented the issue of EU enlargement as fighting the influence of other countries, like Russia, China, Arab countries and even Turkey.

Apart from the fact that there were some people worrying that countries could join just overnight. But for example, with Croatia we negotiated for eight years and I don’t think that negotiations will last a shorter period of time, most likely will take longer, Hahn assured the enlargement skeptics.

Even the state run MIA news agency, which tried to put a positive spin on the statement, acknowledged that opening the accession talks could begin at best in 2020, after several bureaucratic stages are completed. And yet, the Zaev Government and Hahn himself, insisted that Macedonia will open accession talks in July 2019 and interpreted the 2018 European Council decision in this manner.