Key Story: What's in store for the European Union in 2024?

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 29 - Besides politics, Germany will host the European Championships of handball and football in January and July/August respectively.
    North Macedonia is looking at both presidential and parliamentary elections next year. The presidential elections will be held on April 24, while the potential second round is expected to be held alongside the parliamentary elections on May 8.
    Green light for EU enlargement means domestic restructuring Countries holding candidate status are aiming to further pave their way to become a member state.
    In North Macedonia for example, efforts include constitutional amendments in order to include minorities in the preamble. The country also aims to implement reforms related to the rule of law, public administration or protection of members of minority communities. At the EU Council summit in December, it was concluded that the EU is ready to complete the opening stage of accession talks with the country - as soon as the commitment to adopt the constitutional amendments is implemented. However, this amendment remains blocked in parliament for now, with possible shifts only expected after the elections.
    Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which received candidate status a year ago, is coming out of 2023 with a conditional green light to open negotiations when the necessary level of compliance with membership criteria is achieved. The Commission will report about this to the EU Council by March 2024. To be able to negotiate, the country needs to adopt reform laws at the beginning of next year which would strengthen the fight against corruption, build legal certainty and provide arguments that the country is making progress in the implementation of 14 key priorities.
    On the other hand, European leaders called on the authorities of the Republika Srpska entity to withdraw disputed laws, which will cause BiH to regress in terms of fundamental freedoms.
    Areas of concern are a law that criminalises defamation, then the law on 'foreign agents' that provides for special surveillance for non-governmental organisations that are financed from abroad, as well as the law that the decisions of the high representative will not be implemented in this entity.
    Next year, Albania awaits the opening of negotiations for the first group of chapters. In December, the country completed the screening process of harmonising legislation with the European Union as the first stage of negotiations that were opened in July 2022. Prime Minister Edi Rama views making rapid progress towards the EU as an imminent challenge, stressing that Albania today possesses over 50 percent of the capacity to be considered ready for membership in the European Union. While appreciating the work of the Albanian negotiators, he emphasised that "we are still at the beginning of the process." Joining the Eurozone and Schengen Romania is hoping to settle the Schengen dossier next year, after failing to achieve this goal in 2023, as Austria did not change its position after its veto expressed in 2022. After the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in early December, Romanian officials announced that Austria had softened its position and agreed to Romania joining the Schengen Area for air travel.
    Bulgaria's initial plan was to join the Eurozone in 2024.
    However, in February 2023, then caretaker finance minister Rositsa Velkova said the country had not met all commitments it made as it entered the EU's Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) and the inflation criterion, which is why it was moving the target date for accession to January 1, 2025.
    Bulgaria has adopted an action plan for the transition away from the Bulgarian Lev currency. A steering committee in which Eurosceptics play a key role collected enough votes in favour of a petition for a referendum asking Bulgarians to back keeping the Lev as the only legal tender until 2043. The number of votes backing the initiative made the referendum imminent but in early July 2023 parliament rejected it, arguing that the wording of the question was unconstitutional. Vazrazhdane, a nationalist and far-right party, took the matter to the Constitutional Court where the case is still pending. (The content of this article is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, AGERPRES, APA, ATA, Belga, BTA, dpa, EFE, FENA, MIA, STA, TASR) (ANSA).