EU news: Tusk risks Macron BACKLASH as he demands MORE members join
Mr Tusk, the European Council President, is on a tour of the Western Balkans, where he said adding Albania and Macedonia to the bloc’s ranks would be tough but “worth the effort”. However, the plan endorsed by Mr Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has been criticised by Mr Macron, who demands EU reforms before a swell in its membership. Despite all 28 EU members – while the UK is still a member – having to agree to a country’s accession into the bloc, negotiations have already started to bring much of the Western Balkans under Brussels’ control. Speaking alongside Albanian prime minister Eli Rama, Mr Tusk said: “The process will resemble more a hurdles race than a motorway.
TWITTER EU news: Donald Tusk risks upsetting Emmanuel Macron over EU enlargement plans
Full integration remains our common destiny Donald Tusk
“But full integration remains our common destiny. “What you have made is enough to open accession talks.” Mr Juncker has urged leaders to get behind his plans in order to lower the risk of war in the volatile post-Communist region. The European Commission President told MEPs the EU has to push to expand into the region torn apart by past ethnic wars fought in the 1990s.
Pleading to MEPs, he said: “The chief eurocrat said: “If we do not open up to countries in that highly complicated and tragic region, and if we do not open up as a European perspective to them, we will see war returning to that area as we saw in the 1990s. “I do not want war returning to the Balkans and so we need to open up to them.” The two leading EU figures’ plans will not likely go down well with some of the bloc’s other most influential leaders. Mr Macron addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week to set out his vision for the “future of Europe”, including a warning about creating new members.
What countries are in the EU? Wed, September 14, 2016 In the wake of Brexit, we look at the 28 member states that are in the European Union. Play slideshow Getty 1 of 29 Countries that are in the European Union