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)
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