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During a speech at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Macron said that he was ready to support the process of opening negotiations with the European Union.
"We are waiting for the report in March, depending on the fact that if the results are positive and confidence is gained, then we will support the opening of negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia," said French President Emmanuel Macron.
Further, the French leader stressed that there is concern from Chinese and Russian influence in the six states aspiring to join the bloc such as Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia, and North Macedonia, so it is wrong to block these states on the way to the European Union.
This month, the Commission released a new enlargement methodology, based on the French proposal, which also provides for the freezing of negotiations if aspirant countries do not make progress.
Last October, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that before the European Union can focus on enlargement, it must first work hard on reforming the EU itself, warning of a change in the methodology for candidate countries in the union.
It now appears that France's approach has changed and Macron hinted at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that he will not "play" the role of blocker for Albania and North Macedonia's aspirations to join the Union European. Euronews Albania has elaborated in detail on French President Emanuel Macron's pronouncement on his stance on the process of opening negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.
Statement by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron:
Question: Now that the European Commission has revised its methodology for EU enlargement, will France lift the veto on the start of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, if so, when?
Macron: "First of all if you authorize me, I reject the term 'French veto' because I do not like this term. It doesn't take much courage to hide behind France when there is no agreement, but that is not the question of opening negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, but I want to add something: many countries were against opening and I think there would be a major mistake the separation of the two countries before the opening of negotiations.
I said there is a pre-condition, we need to change the rules of enlargement which is very bureaucratic and not transparent enough so rules need to be changed. We need to talk about enlargement but this topic needs to be clearer and more reversible. We need to be able to move faster with the countries that make the most progress, to make more investments for those countries that make the most of the success, but we also have to get away from this if we find that it doesn't work. What we need is that we can also take steps if needed. So that was our condition.
But I am very determined and we must be strict here when we talk about the reforms, and we will see in March what the Commission means, what progress we expect these countries to make, Albania and North Macedonia, I have spoken on preconditions and if the results are positive, if there is confidence that this works, then we will be able to start negotiations.
But there are two things to keep in mind, initially the strategic goal we pursue in the Western Balkans because we need to maintain and eventually anchor it in Europe, this is the strategic goal I support even when talking about enlargement or methodology that was not good. I have a lot of respect for President Vucic, he does a great job and is a great leader, but what happens there is decided by Russia and China and not Europe, so at the end of the day it has no impact on the daily life of citizens.
So we have to guarantee investments in culture and infrastructure, negotiations with Serbia last for five years and after two years we can say that Serbia must join because it is now becoming unbearable. But there are others who invest there and this then poses us to a theoretical position in this case.
If we want the Balkans to be included in Europe we need to invest in culture, language, infrastructure, and I know we have done it from the French side. And that's what we should do instead of starting negotiations and there's a little bit of hypocrisy here. Because we start negotiations and behind closed doors, they know there is no chance of membership for the next 15 or 20 years. This is not reasonable. So we're making fun of these people and that's what I call hypocrisy. It is frustrating for those countries, we can no longer tell you that you cannot become a member for the next 10 or 15 years but we have to say, yes, if you fulfill the conditions.
Question: And when we talk about neighborliness we only talk about enlargement but can it work with so many places? We are not fast and agile enough now and this cannot work with more countries, for example in the common foreign policy do you think it will be easier with more members, for example with our policies versus Turkey and Russia?
Macron: We are no longer consistent, those who say we should move faster with new members also say we do not want to spend more than 1% of the budget. And so this doesn't work. The slice of bread is cut thicker but also buttered with less butter. So the implicit strategy we have in Europe is that Europe is a large expanding market, not a political power. A political power has particular preferences and it must be serious about how it treats its neighbors and it is not just the idea of expanding as quickly as we can.