Nationwide Protest in Serbia: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis Brought to Standstill
A full blockade of several major Serbian cities was launched on the morning of July 4 in protest against police violence
The European Union must open up to accepting new members from the Western Balkans to avoid the return of war in the region, president of the European Commission said on Tuesday, quoted by Anadolu Agency.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker said: "I'm not naive, I know the difficulties. I know the efforts that the Western Balkan countries have to make. I know that there is a need to improve in some ways the performance of some of the Western Balkan countries.
"But if we remove from these countries, in this extremely complicated region .... we are going to live what we already went through in the 1990s."
"I do not want to see war returning to the Balkans and so we need to open up to them," he said.
French president Emmanuel Macron, who was outlining his EU reforms vision to MEPs, said that he will only be able to support more EU members when "our own Europe" has first been reformed.
"I don't want a Europe that, functioning with difficulty at 28 and tomorrow as 27, would decide that we can continue to gallop off, to be tomorrow 30 or 32, with the same rules.
"I would only be able to defend enlargement only after we deepen our Union," Macron said.
EU and Balkan leaders are set to meet in Bulgaria next month, but the EU is unlikely to invite any country to join soon.
EU High Representative Federica Mogherini set a target date of 2025 for the accession of Serbia and Montenegro -- the two most advanced countries in the process -- and for Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The European Parliament has rejected a motion of no confidence against the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski declared on Wednesday that Bulgaria is pursuing a long-standing strategy aimed at erasing the Macedonian nation and identity
The European Parliament has adopted the report on North Macedonia, authored by Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz, without any mention of the “Macedonian language and identity”
Bulgarian MEP Tsvetelina Penkova, representing the Bulgarian Socialist Party, addressed Bulgaria’s forthcoming entry into the eurozone
Euro banknotes stand as a powerful symbol of European unity, with over 29 billion notes circulating across the continent, collectively worth more than €1.5 trillion
The European Commission has issued tailored recommendations to all EU member states, with its latest report on Bulgaria highlighting ongoing challenges and limited progress in critical areas
Borderless Bulgaria: How Schengen Benefits Are Transforming Trade and Logistics
Bulgaria's Mortality Rate Remains Highest in Europe