‘Historic error’: France under fire in EU for blocking Balkan hopefuls

BRUSSELS: Senior European Union officials, worried by growing Chinese and Russian influence in the Balkans, accused France on Friday of making a “historic error” by refusing to let North Macedonia and Albania start talks on joining the EU. North Macedonia, Albania and four other Balkan countries - Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia - are trying to join the world’s biggest trading bloc following the ethnic wars of the 1990s that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. But though the 28 EU governments see Balkan membership as inevitable one day, French President Emmanuel Macron opposed the start of entry talks with Albania and North Macedonia in what one envoy said was an emotional six-hour debate at an EU summit. Macron later told reporters that the membership bids could not progress until the EU, with its complex decision-making structures, changed - though he did not say how it must do so.