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| - Despite massive pressure from France, the EU is not planning any far-reaching changes to the procedure for countries to join the bloc, an EU spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The European Commission on Wednesday is set to unveil proposals to modify the accession process, a project set in motion after France blocked the opening of membership negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania, angering many in the EU. But an EU spokeswoman said there would be no major changes to the system. France unleashed a wave of disappointment throughout the Balkans by leading a small group of member states opposing the opening of talks, despite a decision by the commission that the countries were ready. "We are not going to propose changing the conditions to join the EU. These conditions are very clear, they're set out in the treaties," EU spokeswoman Ana Pisonero told reporters. The proposals on Wednesday will attempt to make the process "more predictable" and "dynamic" without changing the rules, she said. EU leaders in June failed to greenlight the accession talks, with France alone in rejecting North Macedonia but joined by Denmark and the Netherlands in refusing Albania. Most of the shock involved North Macedonia, which underwent a painful process of changing its name to end a row with Greece on the belief that it would open up the EU negotiations. Germany has led efforts to get the accession process back on track. On a visit to Brussels, German European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said he hoped the countries would get the long-frustrated greenlight in March to begin accession talks, given their "achievements". That is when the European Commission is due to publish an individual report for each of the six Western Balkan candidate countries -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia. These will assess the state of reforms needed to launch the talks: respect for the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and fundamental rights. Roth said that the EU states had already "significantly changed" the accession procedure. The changes stipulated that official talks must start with the "most difficult files such as the rule of law, democracy, the fight against corruption and an independent judiciary," Roth said. Roth also underlined the possibility of suspending accession negotiations through a unanimous decision by member states. This had been done in the case of Turkey, for example. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, in January made it clear that her teams did not want to create new hurdles for the two Western Balkan countries. For Albania and Northern Macedonia "the conditions or rules should not be changed now", she said. mt-csg-arp/pvh
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