The EU’s decision not to open accession talks with Albania and Macedonia is tantamount to a tragedy and the bloc’s procrastination is threatening the region’s peace and stability, Levente Magyar, the parliamentary state secretary of Hungary’s Foreign Ministry, said in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the V4 news agency reported.

With its latest decision the EU has lost and “shattered” its credibility for good in the eyes of the two countries, the Hungarian foreign ministry’s state secretary said following the meeting of EU member states on current European affairs. The Hungarian government and its enlargement commissioner in the new European Commission will do their best to reverse this process, a process which could have tragic consequences for the western Balkans.

Before the unfavourable decision, Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov had attended a ministerial meeting of the Party of European Socialists (PES) on Tuesday, where he argued in favour of launching enlargement talks with Macedonia. The decision concerning Macedonia is of crucial significance as the country “has been waiting for 14 years to open EU talks.