Membership status

Candidate country

Background

North Macedonia – along with other Western Balkans partners – was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership during the Thessaloniki European Council summit in 2003. Its Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first in the region, is in force since 2004. It applied for EU membership in March 2004 and the Council decided in December 2005 to grant the country candidate status.

Since October 2009, the Commission has continuously recommended to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia. In 2015 and 2016, the recommendation was made conditional on the continued implementation of the Pržino agreement and substantial progress in the implementation of the ‘Urgent Reform Priorities’. In light of the progress achieved, the Commission repeated its unconditional recommendation to open accession negotiations in April 2018. In light of the significant progress achieved and the conditions set unanimously by the Council in June 2018 having been met, the Commission recommended in May 2019 to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia.

In March 2020, the General Affairs Council decided to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia and endorsed the Commission Communication on a revised methodology "Enhancing the accession process - A credible EU perspective for the Western Balkans" of February 2020. The decision was endorsed by members of the European Council.

In July 2020 the draft negotiating framework was presented to the Member States.

More information on the country's relations with the EU

Interactive timeline