Germany has called on France and the Netherlands on Tuesday to allow EU membership negotiations with Albania and Macedonia in order to help stabilize the Western Balkans, as EU diplomats failed to agree on the terms of the talks.
Paris and the Hague are against the EU efforts to open the negotiations, with France saying that the bloc needs to reform its institutions before accepting new members.
But other states, headed by Berlin, have made great efforts to bring the six Western Balkan countries into the EU to strengthen the bloc's influence in the region in the face of a categorical Russia."The German government is ready to help Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on their way to the European Union," German Foreign Minister Michael Roth said after at the meeting with his counterparts in Luxembourg.
"We are ready to give the green light. I would encourage our friends in Netherlands and France to join us," he told reporters, saying that "the stability is the most important for the Balkans."
Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Serbia hope to join the EU.
While talks on membership with Serbia and Montenegro are underway, Albania, which is only part of NATO, and Macedonia, which has resolved the name issue with Greece, hope will get the permission to negotiate Tuesday.
But, the EU ambassadors failed to draft an agreement to be signed by the ministers.
French President Emmanuel Macron, backed by the Netherlands, said the bloc should be self-reformed before accepting new members, although EU diplomats say Paris is primarily concerned about promoting anti-immigration sentiment at home.
Many European countries, including Austria, which will chair the rotating EU presidency from July, want to send a signal to Albania, Macedonia and other Western Balkan countries that the road to EU membership is still open.
"There has been a lot of progress. It only emphasizes our position that the Western Balkans should have a clear perspective of membership," said the Austrian Austrian Minister Gernot Bluemel.