I've warned since 2014, at least, the political & security situation in the Western Balkans is untenable. Anger & frustration that's broken thru over Paris' decision to obstruct start of EU negotiations for N. Macedonia & Albania is confirmation. No one is pretending anymore.
No one in the region believes the EU Commission speaks for anyone other than itself, and its army of technocrats. There will be no further enlargement, not in anyone's actual lifetime at least. Macron's xenophobia is the face of the EU now, whether anyone in BXL likes it or not.
And for all of Germany's clout within the Union, they've consistently and systematically refused to use it. Berlin is a rhetorical giant but persistently missing in action. If Germany is upset viz. Macron's obstruction on the Balkans, they're not upset enough to act on it.
There's no six ways about it: promises were made, for nearly two decades of Thessaloniki (2003), and those promises have now been broken. EU diplomats can smack talk the UK and U.S. all they want, but they've shown themselves to be as duplicitous and incompetent as it gets.
I, for one, only hope the end result of this all of this will be a far greater Anglo-American presence in the region. The U.S. & UK are in the midst of titanic political shifts but they've maintained, comparatively speaking, a consistent line twd the region for decades.
For genuine democrats in Skopje, Tirana, Sarajevo, and Pristina (Podgorica too) the path fwd is simple: lock-in your ties to NATO at all costs, and buckle down your democratic and political institutions to hold off the coming Russian, Chinese, and Turkish storm.
As it turns out, the Balkans were far more committed to "Europe" than Europe was to them. The Yugoslav Crisis should have taught us that already, but alas. No use crying over ignoramuses in Paris. There's wolves at the door - and we have to prepare. /xxx
