Reforming EU won't block Balkan enlargement - Merkel

French President Emmanuel Macron's view that the European Union cannot admit more members until its governance mechanisms have become more efficient need not delay the accession of Balkan countries to the bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Speaking at a summit in Poland of some leaders from the EU and the Balkans, Merkel said that Macron was right to say at the weekend's Brussels summit that the bloc's governance needed streamlining.

But she added that the accession process for Balkan countries waiting to join, which include Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, was sufficiently long that the two objectives need not collide. "I share President Macron's view that the EU's working mechanisms must be improved," she said. "I don't see that as an abandonment of the accession talks."