Supersize me: EU expansion in th

• supersize （使）变大；（使）膨胀

A video conference of EU ministers will today give a green light to negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia on joining the bloc.

Last October France led a group of countries that prevented this, but adjustments to the accession process have satisfied them that it can now go ahead.

More delays are possible.

The European Commission first recommended that North Macedonia begin talks 11 years ago.

Albania’s green light will come with all sorts of conditions.

On March 17th Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, the biggest of the six western Balkan countries hoping to join the EU, lambasted【抨击】 the bloc for its lack of help with the spread of covid-19 and appealed to “our Chinese brothers” instead.

European solidarity was just a “fairy tale”, he claimed.

The challenge for the EU is to breathe life back into the accession process—and not let it wither and die, as has happened with Turkey.

Mar 24th 2020