Euronews reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to bring the countries of the northern Balkans to the European Union. Macron's France is against the proposal. Yesterday Merkel met the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, in Berlin. From Merkel's words, it is legitimate to deduce that the meeting was characterized by great cordiality:
“On behalf of the federal government, I intend to emphasize that we are clearly in favor of a prospect of joining the European Union of Albania and the rest of the western Balkans. We wish to bring these countries closer to the European Union, and above all we hope for an agreement, at the European Council next March, to begin accession negotiations with Albania and also with North Macedonia. The two countries have made significant progress. "
Merkel does not send them to say. In a positive sense, of course. In fact, it is a matter of battling within the European Council (between heads of state and EU government) to pass the traditional German idea of a European Union with enlargement as a "manifest destiny".
Opposite view to the French one that sees more interest in deepening the Union. That is, in a suspension to a date to be set for the accession of new, non-prosperous countries, in favor of strengthening the institutional structures of the EU, such as the governance of the Eurozone.
Also because Paris is concerned because of two factors, the first internal: the need for President Macron to avoid further discontent on the part of the French already tempted by rebellious Euroscepticism, and enlargement was one of the causes of the French discontent towards of the Paris and Brussels leaderships. While the second factor is external: the need to recover from the Brexit trauma. According to Paris, it was a trauma. Also because the EU will have to face, on a budgetary basis, the hole left by the loss of the United Kingdom's net contribution to the EU, around five million Euros per year.