German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on Tuesday, 14.11.2023, in Berlin against the bilateralization of the EU enlargement process. Scholz said this in response to a question about the recent disputes between Greece and Albania, during the press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Micotaqis. 

The social democratic chancellor emphasized that in all the disputes between the countries of the region, Berlin is "on the side of the EU membership process, because it wants the candidates for membership to reach it as soon as possible". Scholz said that it is necessary to move towards the further rapprochement of the countries of the Western Balkans, which were given the award for membership exactly 20 years ago at the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit. 

The European Commission has recommended the start of talks on the three group-chapters until the end of 2023. These chapters are among the most important as they deal with democracy, the functioning of democratic institutions and public prosecutions. For the talks to open, the unanimous support of the 27 countries in the European Council of the EU member states is needed. On November 11, Greece decided not to join other EU member states in fulfilling the European Commission's request to the European Council for the opening of negotiations for the first three group-chapters. 

The reason for this is the fact that the elected mayor of Himara Municipality, Fredi Beleri, is still in prison. The 52-year-old was arrested two days before the local elections on May 14, 2023 and is accused of buying and selling votes. The Greek authorities considered Fredi Beleri's arrest and imprisonment a "violation of the rule of law, violation of civil rights, disrespect for political rights." 

The two European leaders had met the day before in a small working group, with various leaders of several EU countries, such as Hungary, Cyprus, Slovakia, at a dinner given on Monday evening by the president of the Council of EU's Charles Michel in Berlin. The aim of the dinner was to reach an agreement between the countries on a number of issues related to the future of the EU.