Joseph Muscat disappointed over EU's lack of decision on Albania and North Macedonia

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has expressed his regret that the European Council failed to agree on the opening of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania regarding membership, instead opting to reschedule the decision to early next year. 

EU leaders struggled past midnight in a tense debate over the Balkan states, however ultimately were unable to reach an agreement.

Muscat said the decision dealt a blow "to the credibility of the European Union when dealing with partners, especially in sensitive regions such as the Balkans".

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly opposed moving forward with membership talks and ultimately prevailed over other leaders, including European Council President Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who were in favour.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte supported a potential compromise that would have allowed talks to begin with North Macedonia while forcing Albania to wait, but in the end, leaders also could not agree on separating the bids by the two countries.

EU leaders had previously dangled the prospect of membership in a bid to entice North Macedonia to settle a long-running dispute with Greece, which the state did last year, that in part included changing the country’s name.

President-elect of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen also presented her work programme to European leaders at the summit in Brussels.

With reference to the New Green Deal, Muscat said that climate-related issues were not only environmental in nature, "but are essentially economic and even social".

He said that while new tools, including fiscal ones, can be considered, these should not hit socially deprived groups in a disproportionate manner.

New Brexit deal 'demonstrates flexibility and goodwill on both sides'

Muscat said that he was satisfied with the Brexit deal, which demonstrated flexibility and "goodwill on both sides", and that the temporary mechanism replacing the backstop in Northern Ireland, allowed "the Northern Ireland assembly to decide whether to continue implementing the protocol four years after the transition period".

He said that if the newly agreed deal was rejected by the British Parliament on Saturday, European leaders would need to consider how best to proceed going forward.

However, on Friday the media reported that German Chancellor, Angela Merkel told EU leaders a Brexit extension would be unavoidable if British MPs voted down the deal agreed with Boris Johnson.

During private talks at the EU summit, the German chancellor told her fellow leaders they could not pretend an extension would not be offered to the UK if it was requested, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

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