North Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005 and Albania since 2014.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Discussions could take years. The European Union (EU) opened accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday, July 19, announced the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “It’s a historic moment.”underlined the President of the European Executive. “This is what your citizens have been waiting for so long and (…) this is what they deserve”she added.
Dear @ediramaal and @DKovachevskiyou have shown patience, vision and leadership.
And you have proven time and again your attachment to European values, as friends and reliable partners.
We will all stand to gain, when one day we welcome in the EU. pic.twitter.com/l79zrbIeRy
—Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 19, 2022
North Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005 and Albania since 2014. The 27 had agreed to the launch of negotiations on Monday. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and his North Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovacevski traveled to Brussels on Tuesday to formally launch talks.
The start of negotiations is made possible by the signing on Sunday by Bulgaria and North Macedonia of a bilateral protocol, initiated by France, which held the rotating presidency of the EU in the first half of the year. The protocol will allow, among other things, Macedonian to become one of the official languages of the EU. Bulgaria was blocking the opening of negotiations until recently due to a dispute between the two countries over a long list of historical and linguistic issues.