A meeting at Brdo Castle, a Renaissance-style fortified palace in Slovenia, gave European leaders the opportunity to reaffirm their “unequivocal support” for their partners in the Western Balkans. But they stopped before offering a timeline for their membership.

The 27 leaders of the bloc underlined in their conclusions that any progress would be “based on credible reforms on the part of the partners, fair and rigorous conditionality and the principle of own merits”. They also underlined the need for the EU to “maintain and deepen its own development, ensuring its capacity to integrate new members”.

The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, said that if the EU’s promises do not materialize, “the people of the Western Balkans will feel a great disappointment which will cause enormous damage to the European idea of ​​unity. and cooperation ”.

The six nations are at different stages on the road to EU membership. Montenegro and Serbia are the most advanced, having opened formal accession negotiations years ago. Albania and North Macedonia are awaiting the official opening of negotiations, and Kosovo and Bosnia are potential candidates.

The latest heist focuses on Albania and North Macedonia. They met the criteria to start entry talks, but EU member Bulgaria opposes the inclusion of North Macedonia due to a dispute over language and national identity.

EU membership is based on a candidate’s progress in areas such as respect for the rule of law and democratic standards, media freedom and judicial independence, and the implementation of specific socio-economic reforms.

France insisted two years ago that the functioning and decision-making of the EU be reorganized before the admission of new members. Speaking after the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said continuing tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the feud between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, complicate matters.

“But our wish is really to be able to restore short-term prospects to the Balkans, which are inside Europe,” Macron said.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Chief Executive of the EU, acknowledged the efforts made so far by potential member countries.

“We want them in the European Union. We are one European family, “said von der Leyen.” We share the same history … the same values, and I am deeply convinced that we also share the same destiny. “

Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, supports the membership hopes of its neighbors. Croatia was the last country admitted to the EU, in 2013.

The prospect of membership was a powerful engine of political and economic reform in the Balkans and at times helped contain tensions in a war-torn region in the 1990s.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa had fought “until the last day” for 2030 to be included in the declaration as the deadline for the accession of all Western Balkan states, but s has encountered opposition from some European leaders.

Vucic said “some progress” was made during the summit to give the Balkans a more tangible prospect for membership. But he also stressed that while waiting to become a member, Serbia must strengthen its ties with non-EU countries such as Russia and China.

“While we are on the road to the EU, we have to think about our existence,” said Vucic. “We have to think about our everyday life.

Asked about the Slovenian Presidency’s proposal to give the Balkan countries a precise timetable for their accession, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not support it.

“I think it is important that we keep our word – when the conditions are met, membership can take place,” she said. But “so far, no accession has been able to take place because the conditions have not yet been fulfilled by any of the countries”.

Despite the lack of progress, von der Leyen praised the bloc’s efforts to invest 30 billion euros ($ 34.7 billion) in the Balkans over the next seven years to support the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and accelerate the transition to renewable energies.

“It is very important to make the countries of the Western Balkans understand how much we care about them and that we are their preferred partner,” said von der Leyen.

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Associated Press editors Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, and Dusan Stojanovic at Brdo Castle, Slovenia, contributed to this story.