German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the European Union’s decision not to give the six Western Balkan countries a concrete timeframe for accession.

“I am not keen on a deadline that in the end just puts us under pressure,” the conservative politician, generally sympathetic to enlargement, said after a summit in Slovenia.

Merkel said she was, however, in favor of the EU keeping its word, allowing countries to join if they met the agreed conditions.

Source: dpa/MIA