Germany will unconditionally support the opening of EU accession talk with North Macedonia, according to Deutsche Welle, EWB reported.
The largest groups in the Bundestag, CDU/CSU and SDP have agreed to fully support North Macedonia in light of its accomplishments in the EU integration process. The formal decision will be taken tomorrow.
The same coalition partners announced their decision yesterday to also support the opening of talks with Albania, but the latter will be expected to meet several conditions before actually starting talks with the European Commission.
The Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stated yesterday that the German parties’ decision meant that they had voted in favor of opening talks with Albania. Rama thanked Chancellor Merkel and added that Albania deserved the opening of talks. He did not mention the set of conditions expected to be met before talks actually start.
German officials had hinted earlier to a possible partial decoupling of the two Balkan countries’ EU integration processes based on their merits.
Germany is the only country in the EU where the government and parliament have to agree on EU enlargement matters.
The heads of governments and EU leaders will take a final decision on opening accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia on 17/18 October.
