Panel on EU Enlargement Policy: Debates on Expansion and Deepening of EU Should Not Be Opposed

Ambassador Falconi (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

The participants of a panel discussion on the EU's enlargement have said that debates on the Union's expansion and deepening should not be opposed at a time when the EU faces challenges, when European institutions are unofficially discussing a new methodology for negotiations on membership and after a decision on postponing negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.

"France is opening the doors to further enlargement and we want the Western Balkan countries, including Serbia to enter the EU. That is our goal," French Ambassador to Serbia Jean-Louis Falconi has said.

Falconi opened the panel discussion called, The EU's Enlargement Policy at a Crossroads - The Crisscrossing of Stances on Enlargement and Deepening the EU" held in the French Institute in Serbia late on Nov. 13. He noted that the debate on the EU'S deepening applied to all countries that were striving to become members of the Union one day and that events in Brussels in terms of deepening the EU were part of the same story.

He said that on the road to EU integration the countries of the Western Balkans needed to conduct numerous reforms in the areas of rule of law, freedom and the business climate.