“The clear message from today is and will remain that we want you, and we want the countries in this region to become members of the European Union soon”, emphasised Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz after the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Montenegro. In Tivat, the heads of state and government of the European Union and the heads of the EU institutions met with representatives of the six partner countries of the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Prior to the summit, Germany and France had jointly presented proposals on how the accession negotiations could be simplified and accelerated. They had been met with broad approval both in the European Council and among the Western Balkan states, said Merz. The informal talks at the summit gave him hope that a good solution would be found “very soon”.  

The most important points in brief:

• Making the accession process more dynamic: according to the Federal Chancellor, a process will now get underway to enable the Western Balkan states to be “gradually brought closer” to the European Union. Observer status at European Council meetings, for example, is being considered. The aim is also to integrate the Western Balkan states into EU policy, through measures such as participation in the SEPA payment system or Erasmus+.
• Full membership: at the same time, Chancellor Merz emphasised that the goal remained for all countries in the Western Balkans region to gain full membership. There will now be “very specific but also individual processes related to the individual member states in the Western Balkans”.
• EU expansion is in the interests of the EU itself: the European Union has a strategic interest in binding these states to the European Union, Merz said. Although decisions still need to be made, the Chancellor said, he was hopeful that the clear signal could be given to the candidate countries “very soon” that “We want you.”

Read the transcript of the press conference here (in German only):