Upon his arrival for the General Affairs Council meeting on Tuesday, Klus said that the participants will hold "frank" discussions on how to kick-start the process of accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia.
Earlier this month, European Parliament President David Sassoli urged the European Union to let Western Balkan countries join the bloc, noting that such an expansion would be "a positive project for peace and prosperity". Sassoli said that the Western Balkan states may enter the bloc as soon as they manage to meet all the required criteria.
The Western Balkan nations pending EU membership are Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro.
North Macedonia spent years resolving the name row with Greece to unblock membership talks with the EU. In 2018, then-Macedonia agreed to change its name to dispel Athens’ concerns that it might have territorial claims to Greece's own region of the same name.
In October 2019, France, Denmark and the Netherlands blocked the launch of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, citing the need for further reforms in the two countries. In March 2020, the European Commission announced that EU nations had agreed to open the talks, but the process has not started yet because Bulgaria has been blocking the beginning of the accession talks between North Macedonia and the EU since November 2020 over disputes regarding language, ethnic minorities, and historical issues.
