Western Balkans on EU agenda[fr][de] 

Ministers will likely welcome the peaceful re-run of parliamentary elections in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Sunday, just two weeks after ethnic violence marred the first elections on 1 June. 

Gunfire between rival Albanian groups in the small Balkan nation had forced the suspension of voting in several polling stations, dealing a heavy blow to the country's aspirations to join the EU and NATO (EurActiv 2/06/08). 

Sunday's partial repetition of the ballot only involved about 9% of the 1.7 million electorate, mainly in ethnic Albanian areas. The vote could not affect the overall outcome, as Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE party had already clinched an absolute parliamentary majority following its nationalist campaign, largely riding on backlash from the country's 'name dispute' with Greece (EurActiv 24/04/08). 

But at stake in the re-run were the credentials of Macedonia's fledgling democracy and its bid for European Union membership. 

On Friday (13 June) during a visit to Skopje, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel, whose country presides over the EU until the end of the month, stressed that Macedonia could expect to begin EU accession negotiations this year if it meets certain criteria. 

"Presently the EU's door is wide open, and thus it would be wise to seize this favourable moment," he pointed out. The presidency will be pushing for EU leaders to give Macedonia a tangible guarantee of its EU path at the European summit on 19-20 June. 

However, some countries have been opposing this up till now due to Macedonia's name dispute with Greece. What's more, preoccupations as to the EU's future after the Irish voted down the bloc's flagship Lisbon Treaty could postpone any such statements (EurActiv 13/06/08). Indeed, a key component of the treaty was a reform of the EU's institutional architecture to prevent a paralysis of the decision-making process in an enlarged Union. 

While Kosovo is not on the foreign ministers' agenda, it is unlikely that they will be able to avoid the topic, after the fledgling state's constitution entered into force on Sunday. 

The EU is also poised to take over policing and justice tasks from the United Nations after the UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week put forward proposals to "reconfigure" the activities of the UN Mission UNMIK to allow the EU to deploy its contested EU-Lex police mission there (EurActiv 29/05/08). 

"It is my intention to reconfigure the structure and profile of the international civil presence [...] enabling the European Union to assume an enhanced operational role," said the secretary general in letters to Kosovo and Serbian leaders. 

But the handover, which is foreseen in Kosovo's constitution, remains strongly opposed by both Serbia and Russia, who insist that the EU mission is illegal because it has not been approved by the UN Security Council.