The General Affairs Council meeting due to take place in Brussels on November 19, will not adopt conclusions on Macedonia’s bid to be given a date for opening EU accession negotiations.

According to the announced program, EU ministers will discuss enlargement, but with no conclusions. The meeting of ministers is organized to start preparations for the European Council meeting in mid-December, which means that in December Macedonia cannot expect any further momentum in its bid, after France vetoed the decision to open accession negotiations.

Following the European Council meeting in October, the Council will discuss enlargement and the stabilization process. At their meeting on October 17-18, EU leaders discussed the opening of negotiations with Albania and Macedonia. They concluded to return to the issue before the EU-Western Balkans summit in Zagreb in May 2020.

Ministers are expected to discuss the way forward towards this new discussion among leaders. No Council conclusions are planned to be adopted by the Council at this stage, reads the program of the GAC meeting which is to be held next week in Brussels.