European Commission: EU Enlargement Update
Overview:
The European Commission (EC) has published its regular annual reports on the progress of countries in the EU Accession process. It notes that Croatia has made significant progress on most fronts over and above the removal of the Slovenian blockade on its opening/closing of chapters. The EC has been requested by the European Council of Ministers (CoM) to form an Opinion on Montenegro’s application for membership although it has not yet received a request to do so with regards to Albania’s application. The EC now recommends the start of Accession negotiations with Macedonia although this will still require a resolution to the “name” issue. It has also recommended the acceptance of the Interim Trade Agreement with Serbia. Again this requires unanimity in the CoM. The EC proposes visa free travel for Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia from January 2010.