French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday after meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in Paris that France would withdraw its enlargement reserves at the next EU Council in May if the European Commission drafts an enlargement methodology by the end of the month to address France’s demands.

Macron has said he wants the Zagreb Summit to be a success and that changing the methodology of the negotiation process is a prerequisite for starting negotiations with EU candidate countries.

I share your efforts to achieve unity at the Zagreb Summit in May and make it successful for Europe. France has proposed a new methodology so that the enlargement process is not only a bureaucratic process, but a real political way forward that can be both accelerated and reversible, containing conditions as well as concrete benefits for candidate countries, Macron said.

Croatia took over the EU presidency on 1 January and the main goal of their EU presidency is to expand it to the Western Balkans.