France and the Netherlands strongly oppose opening of accession negotiations with Macedonia. The same goes for Albania – stated Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kodzias during an international security conference on the Greek island of Rhodes.
The Minister told reporters that, firstly, in the joint letter, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg “set the problem of integration” of Macedonia, but also of some other countries, implying to Albania.
– Meanwhile, three of these five countries – Luxembourg, Denmark and Germany, have withdrawn from this group, and they no longer oppose accession talks as strongly, but the other two, the Netherlands and France, are opposed, said Kotzias, pointing out that this is the main conversation with his counterpart from Albania, Ditmir Bushati in Rhodes.
Kotzias isn’t wrong, however it isn’t just France and Holland. the Danish Prime Minister as recently as last week openly stated his country would block Macedonia’s accession talks with Brussels adding “Macedonia can change their name as many times as they like, their name has nothing to do with our opposition to new EU members“.
Apparently no one is relaying this information to Zoran Zaev who first promised NATO and EU membership within a month of name change, and as of yesterday said the wait might be a year or two…
Meanwhile, EU’s leading nations have openly and repeatedly stated no new members until 2025. When discussing new memberships, the only country mentioned in official reports that may join (read absorbed) in the EU is Montenegro. Brussels and NATO prefer absorbing nations with coastlines.
