Albania, North Macedonia begin membership talks with EU

After four years, the countries of Albania and North Macedonia have formally begun their talks on their membership in the European Union. The formal start of the talks with the two countries to eventually join the bloc is seen as a breakthrough after many challenges by EU governments.

Reuters reports that the leaders of Albania and North Macedonia formally started membership talks with the European Union Tuesday. The talks finally began for the membership bids of both countries after the initial promise to start negotiations in 2018.

“You have shown strategic patience, in abundance,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with the Czech Prime Minister, who is currently holding the EU presidency.

“The European future is within your reach. I wish you the swiftest possible path,” said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

The European Union’s Executive Commission already recommended Albania, and North Macedonia began talks in 2018. The parliaments of Germany, the Netherlands, the Bulgarian government, and France’s president all held up the process with different demands of the two countries hoping to become part of the bloc.

European Union membership talks and reforms could still take years, according to EU officials.

US President Joe Biden also praised the formal start of the talks in a statement, saying that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stressed the importance of an integrated Europe. Both Albania and North Macedonia are already members of the NATO alliance as well.

Meanwhile, the European Union will be amending its sanctions on Russia on Wednesday to unfreeze some of the funds of top Russian banks in order to ease bottlenecks in the global trade of food and fertilizers, according to a draft document.

The move to amend sanctions follows criticism from leaders in Africa of the negative impact the sanctions on Russia have on trade, worsening shortages mainly caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of ports in the Black Sea.

In the amended sanction, EU countries will be able to unfreeze blocked economic resources of top Russian lenders VTB, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Otkritie FC Bank, VEB, Promsvyazbank, and Bank Rossiya.

Sberbank, which is Russia’s largest bank, will also be targeted to the freezing of its assets, except for the resources needed for food trade, according to an EU official.