The European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, stated that they are accelerating the enlargement process.
Speaking on a discussion panel with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, at the Munich Security Conference, she said that the EU is working “two to three times faster” than before.
Kos said that Montenegro and Albania could complete the technical part of the membership process by 2026 or 2027.
“We must make a distinction between the technical part of the process and the political part. Regarding the technical part, I can say that we could complete it with Montenegro and Albania by the end of 2026 or 2027,” she said.
Kos added that the “political part” comes next, which involves the will of the member states.
“No step or important step can happen without the will of the member states,” she said.
“We need to have serious talks with the member states, and we are doing this, to see what we can do. The technical part is based on merit, but there is also the political will. And geopolitics, which I mentioned earlier, plays an important role,” she added.
Rama was later asked by Ida Ruge, Senior Associate for Policies at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who was leading the discussion, whether this is an “ambitious timeline for Albania” and whether he believes it can happen.
“Well, what I know is that when we started this process, my hair was completely black, and my beard was much more neat. But as a big fan of Netflix, I would say that after what I saw in these two days under this roof, which was wonderful, Netflix could make two series: one about the EU and one about the US. The EU series would be about a patient with 27 doctors – there were 28, but one went crazy and left the hospital. Meanwhile, the series about the US would be a show with a single sheriff,” said the Albanian Prime Minister, joking about the bureaucratic part of the EU membership process.
Kos said that she “cannot speak” about a real deadline for the membership of all Western Balkan countries in the EU, because, as she said, “there are differences between countries.”
“But during my mandate, we can bring two or maybe three countries to the end of the membership process, meaning closing all negotiation chapters,” she said.
When asked which countries she was referring to, she said, “They are Montenegro and Albania,” adding that they are leading the process.
