The offices of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of North Macedonia are pictured covered with logos reading "EU for You" in different languages in Skopje, North Macedonia, October 17, 2019. Picture taken with long exposure time. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Senior European Union officials, worried by growing Chinese and Russian influence in the Balkans, accused France on Friday of making a "historic error" by refusing to let North Macedonia and Albania start talks on joining the EU.
North Macedonia, Albania and four other Balkan countries - Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia - are trying to join the world's biggest trading bloc following the ethnic wars of the 1990s that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
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