Alongside Ukraine and Moldova, six nations wish to join the European Union, including Montenegro, which hosted EU-Western Balkans summit.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says that the European Union plans to initiate a gradual integration process for six Western Balkan countries wishing to join the bloc.

“The clear message of today is, and will remain: We want you. And we want this region, and the states within it, to become members of the European Union soon,” Merz told reporters in the Montenegrin coastal town of Tivat, after a summit between the bloc’s leaders and their Western Balkan counterparts.

Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic welcomed several European leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Merz, on Friday morning. His Balkan nation is among those bidding to become an EU member state.

After decades of back-and-forth over the future membership of the six Western Balkan nations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reinvigorated Brussels’s interest in expanding the bloc.

Since the war began, both Ukraine and Moldova have joined the queue of countries seeking accession alongside Balkan hopefuls, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – all of which are at different stages of the accession process.

However, the process of joining is usually long and complex, involving years of negotiations and legal reforms, with approval of all 27 current EU members required to complete each step.

“We need to make the enlargement process faster and more credible,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said as she arrived at the summit.

France and Germany used the meeting to push for the idea of “gradual integration” into the bloc.

“Together with Germany, we have proposed a strengthened gradual integration process,” Macron told the media before the summit.

He said that the proposal could mean that a country that aligns itself with the EU on certain criteria would be allowed to join certain bloc formats, for example, attending European Council meetings.

“The fact that we have not welcomed any new members for 13 years shows that the shortcomings also lie on the side of the European Union, and that is what we want to overcome today,” Merz said.

The idea of “halfway” integration is increasingly being discussed. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently argued in a joint op-ed for faster integration in exchange for new members not having veto rights.

Enlargement “is very important from a geopolitical point of view, because this region is also where Europe’s independence is at stake in terms of energy, security and migration routes,” Macron said.

But with some countries remaining candidates for more than 15 years, support for joining the bloc has decreased significantly in certain Balkan countries.

Serbia, which maintains close ties with Russia, is among the most eurosceptic countries in the region, with public support for membership below 50 percent.

Although Brussels has long said all the remaining Balkan nations would be accepted together, Montenegro and Albania are increasingly emerging as the frontrunners to join the bloc first, pulling ahead of countries like Serbia and Bosnia, which lag on the required reforms.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos has lauded Montenegro’s progress, stating that the technical negotiations could be concluded by the end of this year, which would open the way to membership by the end of 2028, 20 years after it submitted its application.

However, many think this goal is ambitious as Montenegro faces significant obstacles to EU integration, including those related to justice and corruption.