According to Greek shadow Foreign Minister Georgios Koumoutsakos, the EU accession of Macedonia and Albania will be evaluated separately, and not as a group.

Each case will be judged on its own. There are no couples in enlargement. The two cases are not the same, they just coincide in time, Koumoutsakos said during a press briefing in Athens, the MIA news agency reported.

The issue of whether to “decouple” Macedonia and Albania has become important as the two countries ask that they are allowed to finally open accession talks, and Macedonia is given better chances alone than in a group with Albania.

Koumoutsakos is widely expected to become the next Greek Foreign Minister after the July elections. He insisted that Greece is a supporter of EU enlargement in the Balkans, despite the fact that Greece blocked Macedonia from opening accession talks since 2009.

Greek objections are supposed to be lifted with the signing of the Prespa treaty, but the New Democracy party, which Koumoutsakos belongs to, said that it will preserve the right to use the veto.