I feel like this isn’t at all the first one these. If you want people to think the information is legit, getting things like the countries straight would be a good one.
Usually you guys are quite good at this so I’ll point it out assuming you haven’t realised but your map for the EU in the thumbnail is a little off, Ireland isn’t included in the EU but Switzerland is. Regardless, love all your work, and loved the video :)
An important moment that was omitted: With the beginning of the EU accession negotiations, Albania and North Macedonia receive the status that two Balkan countries already have: Montenegro and Serbia. Without this information, it appears that Albania and North Macedonia are the only countries in the region that are close to becoming members of the European Union.
And Albania's reasons for not being approved were omitted entirely, with a detailed focus on North Macedonia. One would suspect that Albania being a huge supporter of Kosovo separatism from Serbia would factor into Serbia not being too enthused about the prospect.
If you make such obvious mistakes like marking switzerland and liechtenstein as EU members on your map, what other things might be wrong? As a serious political channel there should be more effort put into the videos. Still, very interesting topics well narrated. Just put in more quality checks next time please!
@@LivelyMD Could be, but its also true that their quality control is lacking. In most videos they have obvious mistakes: wrong maps, diffrent data shown than said by the presenter, cut off sentences, random Letters in the middle of texts and those are just the things i can recall from top of my head. They probably want to release videos ASAP so they sacrifice the quality little bit.
The North Western countries are not in the mood to have another Hungary in the EU. Corrupt to the core, blocking laws with vetos whilst being the biggest recipients of EU funds. The potential new member have a lot to gain from joining, but what do they have to offer to counter the risks?
Westerners have no idea of the sheer amounts of manpower they get from Central and Eastern Europe. Look around in your country and see how many engineers and surgeons are Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Polish etc. On top of all that, Germany and France get export markets which boosts their economies by a lot and is not very different from how Germany would've liked to see Eastern Europe after it won WW2. The West has a lot to gain, you need to stop complaining.
Not just the North Western man.. not even Italy who is (at least in terms or budget) a net contributor or Spain want a nother Poland or another Hungary..
A single country shouldn't be able to veto anything. Also, Hungary should have been sanctioned to the ground, but no, the western elite let Viktor Orbán to cement his power by the help of the EU funds. EU should be reformed before any new members join, and I am saying it as a Hungarian.
Yup. No wonder Orban has been a big supporter of expanding the EU in the Balkans region. As a Hungarian, it would be devastating for us if we left the EU (although I think Orban will formally initiate Huxit in about 3 years), but the EU would function much better without us.
While this video supposedly treats both countries, it seems like North Macedonia is the primary focus and Albania is simply described as slow. Meanwhile Albania has been vetoed repeatedly for different reasons from Greece, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark (if not even more countries). Is this not worth exploring at all?
Albania going to have a lot harder time getting in to the EU than north Macedonia due to there Islamic majority in the country, which many countries will veto due to Islamic phobia.
@@georgeskanderbeg3242 still identify as Muslim tho, which will frighten a lot of westerns to block them. Sad but it’s the hard truth. Albania would be the first Muslim nation to join the Eu
@@jasondevereux6030 I mean France has more ☪️ then the entire Albania and so does Germany. If they were so Islamophobic I don't think they would allow them to migrate in the first place
North Macedonia's name controversy with Greece seems quaint compared to the whole "Macedonian is just a written regional norm of the Bulgarian language". This is just the Serbo-Bosnian-Croatian thing all over again. The South Slavs are, socio-politically, so damn messy. (Edit: Know what, it's the entirety of the Balkans, not just the South Slavs) Thinking about it, I wonder why the Germans were able to form a unified identity in a few decades after unification but not the Yugoslavs.
The South Slavs are, socio-politically, so damn messy. - Yes, we are. And that's with the strong support of the great powers who have an excellent track record of stimulating that situation.
@@xgladar Well, to be fair, post-WW1 there were significant support in Austria for unification but was blocked by the Versailles Treaty. Like, the closest the South Slavs got to be like the Germans nowadays would be after WW1 with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
Yeah but not balkans. Eu should implement a law that stops anyone from Serbia, Albania, Greece, turkey from leaving their countries/ coming to west Europe
@Don´tbehasty don’t worry you have admitted because 1.5 milion from 2.8 Albanians live and have EU or UK or Us passport and life stay in EU so probably you should visit Balkans from Serbia to Albania to understand why they are very great people
The thumbnail has so many weird errors. Switzerland is included in the EU meanwhile Ireland is not. And for some reason only half of Denmark is included. Come in guys, all your videos have 50 mistakes when it comes to spelling, maps, and information in general.
As a Greek-Swede I like both N. Macedonia and Albania, I hope they will meet the required criteria in the near future so we can welcome these two nations into the EU family 🇸🇪🤝🇦🇱🇲🇰 I only hope that they will be compliant and cooperative with the rest of the union to support and strengthen our shared values and not pull a complete Orbán on us.
It's really interesting to see how missunderstood the North Macedonia - Bulgaria issue is in the EU. Not only does Bulgaria want to disprove the language of another sovereign nation, they also want to effectively meddle in the internal affairs into another independent country. The language and rhetoric used by Bulgaria, is the same Russia uses against Ukraine. But When Bulgaria does the same ti another country, the EU is very much fine with it, because it's them doing the deed. At the same time what Bulgaria wants from North Macedonia is them to change their school books, and permanently delete everything related to Bulgaria during WW2 (Does this remind anyone of anything?). Even though Bulgaria was part of the Nazi regime in WW2 and deported over 11,000 Jews to Treblinka from North Macedonia's territory, while killing thousands of citizens, now they are blocking North Macedonia because schoolbooks in Macedonia reffer to Bulgaria as beging an occupator during WW2, which it was. At the same time, Bulgaria's former MOD Karakachanov even threatened North Macedonia with war in 2020/21. At the same time, the EU Justice Court has a verdict against Bulgaria for mistreating Macedonian minority in the territory of Bulgaria, straight out making their lives miserable on purpose. Not investigating this issues fully is a hallmark of an amateur channel, discussing serious topics.
The difference is that North Macedonia was never really a country before 1991. There is no such a language. All they do us steal history from Bulgaria and Greece. In other words it's a narion of brainwashed bulgarians
From a Macedonian POV you are literally like the second non Macedonian dude I have seen on the internet that is understanding the problems Bulgaria is causing both to Macedonia and the EU.
You literally blatantly steal history from your neighbours and claim the historical figures them as yours. How you are not ashamed of your roots and writing hateful Serbian propaganda essays! Serbs occupied you before thanks to Tito and Stalin and the biggest national traitors - Dimitrov.
to be honest this is all of Europe continent to different levels to understand the nuance of political situation I need 8 history books. I'm going to be honest I didn't want to be any other way .
Wtf are you talking about, bro? Lol, corruption is on average much worse in the West Balkans & Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, etc. - than it was with Romania & Bulgaria. On average, Romania & Bulgaria were a lot more stable and in much better shape - that's why they turned towards the EU early & were able to enter soon after the other 10 states of 2004.
@@dyawr The Western Balkans have made much more progress than the other you mention, especially Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania. Meanwhile Romania and Bulgaria were allowed in due to their GDP and size, they are far more corrupt. Compare Albania’s judicial system with Romania’s and see which one meets and exceeds EU standards, and which one does not. Also Romania and Bulgaria had much less requirements to enter the Union.
@@forzaazzurri1471 Source "trust me bro"? Lol Romania & Bulgaria had the same requirements as the first 10 countries that acceeded in 2004. Looking at the Corruption Perception Index ranking for 2021, we see the following order: ... 63. Croatia 64. Montenegro❗ *66. Romania* 73. Hungary 78. Bulgaria 82. Belarus 87. Kosovo 87. North Macedonia❗ 98. Serbia 105. Moldova 110. Albania❗ 110. Bosnia & Herzegovina 122. Ukraine There is literally *1 point* difference between Montenegro & Romania. And *6 points* difference between Romania & N. Macedonia. Also *10 points* difference between Romania & Albania. (as score) You are literally talking out of ur @ss right now. And what is your basis of comparison between Albania's judicial system & Romania's? 🙂 And how come there are *44 positions* between them (in favour of Romania), on the CPI ranking list - if Albania is so reformed?
@@forzaazzurri1471 All countries (EVEN THE US) are corrupt, it's just more behind the curtain type of thing. Go watch house of cards ffs and stop talking shit about countries you've never been to.
@@janignacio7810 I agree with you, in the US corruption is even legalized and called “lobbying”. My point is if Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU, there is no reason why Albania shouldn’t be in as well.
to understand European politics In most cases can be described in the sentence "Please open the history book on the site 1) medieval 2) antiquity 3) from 18 to 19 century 4) ww1 5) ww2 6) cold War 7) "90"/." to understand the Political problem.
@Zaydan Naufal and Confrontation was due to some ridiculous dreams on the part of Indonesia thinking they own this region. Glad reality put them back in their place.
Bosnia should face inland problems first. Serbia and Kosovo still have problems with each other. So it's logical Albania and North Macedonia should join next. Montenegro as well. All 3 are pretty small so it shouldn't be a big problem. The hard part is that everybody already in the EU have to say yes. And when you need a yes from someone they might want something in return. Like Greece and Bulgaria (maybe more) It will be interesting to see how it develops... If quality of living increases in those country's we could all benefit. Beautiful country's for tourists. Also the house prices here are huge so living in an other EU country could be interesting...
I'm really pro-EU, but its not the time to expand the block, we need to solve many problems inside the block before thinking of expanding, specially in the Balkans
I'm for the expansion since i view it was neutral. The potential downfalls due to borrowing have been mended, and the stronger economies in the EU have shown to be resilient. Peoples fears are always disproportionally due to immigration, as they perceive it as a reduction in quality of life for themselves. It's hard to adress those fears.
I understand that most of the euro skepticism is unfounded and exaggerated, although we can't have an union expansion without solving the breach in rule of law problems that have been happening with many member states (mainly, but not exclusively, Hungary).
Tell that so Serbians your EU bombed. And to Russia who requested to be included in the EU, yet was denied. Because they are also part of Asia, while France has territories in America.
@@thanasisrks4944 Russia never tried to join the EU. And they wouldnt be allowed to anyways due to the fact that they dont meet the democratic criteria. It has nothing to do with them have territory outside of Europe. Cyprus is completely in Asia and they are in the EU
I think the main reason North Macedonia has waited so long to finally start some development is that both countries have changed leadership and prime ministers in the past year. This was the key factor for the two sides to talk about future cooperation and not just about historical issues.
Technically as it’s said in the video Albania didn’t request any advancement towards the EU up until 2014. Edi Rama was made prime minister in 2013 and he’s made the most progress than any other former prime minister. He also initiated the creation of open Balkans a parallel organization in non-EU balkan states.
Greece applied for membership in the EOC all the way back in the early sixties but due to the economic stagnation that Greece was experiencing around that time and a dictatorial government that lasted from 1967 to 1974 our application was disregarded. Attempts to join the EOC began almost immediately in 1975 -76. Officially we became members in 1981. A little patience is essential for all the EU members to approve these new candidates.
Yiasou Theo, as an Aussie-Greek I'm a little out of touch with affairs of back home. I wonder if you could let me know what triggered Grexit and how did it fail. Was there a move to go back to the drachma? It sounds to me, like in Britain at the moment the people wanted an exit, but the rotten corrupt politicians did not allow it...there is a strong parallel case in both with the EU being the clue that links both.
@@anthonypagourelias9516 Antony hi. well as in all things Greek, things are complicated and because of that we have to start from the beginning. In 2009 Greece was hit severely hard from the global recession, in the previous years we had taken large loans with which many projects were founded but as always due to corruption a large sum from these loans ended into the pockets of the politicians. We almost, I believe, declared bankruptcy since we were unable to pay back these loans. Other countries mainly Germany intervened to revitalize the Greek economy and avoid bankruptcy which would have harmed not just us but the entire union. A committee of technocrats was formed known as Troika which oversaw the aspects of the Greek economy vital to the economic restrengthening of the country. The committee imposed certain guidances known as μνημόνια -i think we had three of those or four I don't remember exactly- . These rules meant higher taxes, further centralization and cuts in all services and radical austerity measures. Since our entry into the Union there were those that wanted a return to the drachma and the exit but they were a minority and still are. Sidenote drachma currently is worthless the Greek governments of the late 90s until 2002 lowered the value of the currency so much that joining the Eurozone was the only way to avoid rampant inflation. I might be wrong on that but it is my understanding that, that's what happened. Anyway back to 2012 when the voices for grexit were more vocal than ever before but still we were recuperating from the economic impact of the recession and no referendum was held. In 2015 if I remember correctly a referendum was held but it wasn't a referendum on whether or not to leave the EU but it was heavily implied. The referendum of 2015 was whether or not to accept further economic support from the EU. The majority of the Greeks said no but a few months later everything went to hell as capital control was imposed and were were forced to accept economic support. Troika in its stay in Greece had many names but they departed in 2019 I think. Ever since the country has been improving economically. The truth is though that the entire EU has been facing several problems with euroscepticism and such people still exist in Greece but no grexit, I don't think is going to occur any time soon and as I explained a return to the drachma is foolish and catastrophic for the economy.
I think the conditions for entering should be strict not to weaken the core, nobody wants another Poland or another Hungary.. but another Lithuania would be more than welcome.. losing the unanimity vote would help tho.. maybe a qualified majority would work better..
Welcome to E.U. bureaucracy. We'll see you in another 20 years: 2042 Maybe then we miiiight reconsider your membership, and if we do reconsider it, it'll only take another 20 years to 2062. Congratulations on being so close to membership! \o/
The point of being a EU memeber is to contribute to the alliance in some way and not just suck money out of the rest of the members, like all balkan countries do. Once you realise this you will understand why it takes so long.
@@time.dealer exactly this! It takes time to join the EU because it takes time to get your shit together. While a person can make changes to their life in a few months and a year at most for some of the bigger changes, for a country you're looking at a decade at least. And considering that EU values not only consider an economy that gives back to the alliance but also a number of more liberal views on rights and corruption, there's a lot of stuff for some countries to sort out, especially old soviet block nations.
Moldova must be in the EU. They chose democratic values and independence from Russian influence and corruption. Moldova ( = Basarabia) is mainly land that belonged to Romania but was snatched by Russia in their ex-comunist era. The official language of the Moldavians is exacly romanian...they speak romanian although they also speak russian as a result of the years they were occupied by the Russia. Stalin's regime deported many moldavians to the Gulag and tried to Russify the population of Moldova. I'm from Romania and i support Moldova. Russia has also done us(to Romania, my country) a lot of harm after she secound world war.. We were under the communist regime for many years until the revolution of 1989 when we overthrew the dictator Ceausescu's regime
Thank you man. I am really happy to see such overwhelming support form our Romanian brothers. I am from the Republic of Moldova but I feel Romanian and I wish our two countries were united again. We still have a lot of work to do before entering the EU, but at least Moldova's population understood how corrupt and unpatriotic the pro-russian parties are. Dodon and a couple other socialist politicians are now being judged (for corruption, trădare de patrie, etc) and hopefully will get the sentence they deserve. With Romania by our side, our journey towards the EU will surely be easier.
@lati long , that's a too long discution. The Transnistrian problem("") is created by the Russians( not by the actual Ucraina government), by using some local pro-russian(russian and russified) population and a corrupt local(transistrian) regim(supported by Russia) , as are the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk provinces artificially created in Ucraina. If Transnistria was Ukrainian territory many years ago then I can also say that Ukraine owns muuuch more land taken from Romania by the Russian Comunist regim. Ucraina have more ex-Romanian territories forcibly incorporated within the former U.S.S.R. - respectively Northern Bucovina, Herța land, Hotin land as well as in the counties of southern Basarabia BUT the peacefull romanian people is not imperialist, arrogant and doesn't creates conflicts at any cost. Some historical losses due to the greed of the Russians have been left behind by us and life goes on. Romania hasn't the wealth and the large weapons of America BUT WE FULLY SUPPORT AND HELP UCRAINA according to our possibilities ... food, medicine, we shelter refugees, etc. We are an UE country ....we have democracy..... we RESPECT, admire the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom and democratic values....against russian corruption and imperialism. The history of Russian politics is one of atrocities...greed, lies and crimes ... they annexed territories from various countries and later Russified them. Ukraine has such territories( that belonged to other countries) and others countries from the ex-comunist USSR have too .....BUT this is the fault of the Russian regime(U.S.S.R) and not of the actual Ukrainian people .... it's pure history, the truth. SO FUCK PUTIN (and Russian imperialism). SLAVA UCRAINA and PEACE.
@@77belts , doesn't matter if they(Moldova) are poor. I AM A POOR (country)TOO compared to others( countries). They will be in UE and we( Romania) support them too. Democracy will win
yes, it does. it has a fairly high living standard, if not for europe, for the balkans at least, plus it uses euro as their currency. but who knows, maybe the friendship with serbia is holding them back
3:38 - As a Bulgarian, I think your framing here is a bit off. The main issue isn't the language, in fact as far as I'm aware Bulgaria isn't demanding that the EU adopt Bulgaria's positions, only acknowledge that this is the position we hold. The actual reason for the "veto" was the historical revisionism and misrepresentation of key historical figures, as well as NM not following the 2017 treaty of friendship,which included forming of a commission on historical matters. Since then, the commission came to several definitive conclusions, only for NM to back away from them and stall the progress being made. Additionally you imply this issue only arose *after* the Greece name dispute was resolved, which is not the case, there have been tensions between Bulgaria and NM in terms of historical revisionism for decades.
Who gives a fuck about some historical figures from centuries ago. The French claim Karl the Great to be solely french all the time and Germany doesn’t Veto them. That’s just childish imo.
Cheeres for your input. From the outside it looks like very petty demands towards NM if you don't have a good understanding of the relations and history in the region.
@@MrXxHunter just cause you are an idiot who have no identity and don’t expect others to be as well. Have fun having no self identity and history soon! ; )
@@MrXxHunter The disputed period is between 1879 and 1945, ending less than a century ago (seeing as the commission already agreed on the main medieval dispute). In addition, I don't see how incorporating European historiography and discouraging misinterpretations of the past that aren't in line with the European accepted norm, are not a desirable thing for a country applying to join the EU. With regards to the language dispute, however, I completely disagree with our government's position, it's quite silly not to acknowledge a language, regardless of the basis on which it was formed or the length of time that has passed since its codification.
Most probably, Montenegro would be the next one, as its negotiations are the most advanced of the 4 active candidates (with Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia)
On paper yes they are more advanced, but I know that Albania has already been working on chapters on its own before talks even began and it is further ahead than Montenegro in terms of reforms, while Montenegro is technically much behind, in 10 years of talks they have provisionally (subject to further review) closed only 3 chapters. So Albania does have a really good chance of being the 28th EU member.
@Albanian I'm not sure about that. For what I know it's not a prerequisite. Some EU members do not recognize the independence of Kosovo (Spain, Greece, Romania, Cyprus...). And Kosovo is not part of EU nor a candidate.
Well, I think their hissy-fit was before the financial crisis in 2015... and they were a pretty old, strong member in the EU - whose opinion & political sway carried a lot of weight.
1. Not the map of the EU 2. Albanian coat of arms when talking about ~North~ Macedonia The history of "Macedonian" nationalism and Bulgaria is, of course, complicated since the 19th century. Then again, as an EU citizen, I hope they both join ASAP. Actual events are showing us that we need to be together or perish alone.
This video has typo's: Title, "Armenia" should be Albania. "Stabalization" should be Stabilization. Should be considered a regional "Norm" of the Bulgarian language, should be form.
Hopefully, Europe can eventually be united by the EU. Not sure if the "EU" should include Russia, but it should definitely include the Balkans, Belarus and especially Ukraine.
@@Tommi414 Hopefully Russia collapses because of the war in some years and a democratic and free government is established so that Russia can rejoin the west as it was once part of it from 1703 to 1917, i bet Russia would have begged to be part of a EU, this adversity to "the West" is an unfortunate remnant of the Soviet Union and Cold War Mentality.
@@Anis-zc9rw "this adversity to "West" is not just due to cold war mentality but also NATO mentality that shares opinion Like you that Russia hopefully collapses
Can you talk more about the bulgarian demands, not just the minority. The minority is the people that have dual citizenship *bulgarian and macedonian*. They only do it to get EU passports so that they can work abroad, now Bulgaria wans them to be recognised as Bulgarians not as Macedonians.
@@chrisb2743 Actually it does mate. When Northmacedonians apply for a Bulgarian passport, they sign a declaration stating that based on their Bulgarian roots, they require Bulgarian citizenship. Same is applied with everyone with Bulgarian heritage worldwide. We all know why they are doing it, but when the EU comes and asks around on the matter, the numbers don't lie, 100.000+ northmacedonians have confirmed their Bulgarian roots on a binding document and require their "new" motherland to provide them with access to the EU.
While I think Albania has a *lot* of work to do, N Macedonia has made signifcant steps, and I think is on the right track, and in time I believe both countries can be meaningful contributors to the EU, not just (or even neccessarily) in financial terms, but in political and social contributions, much as the Baltic states are seen today. That said, the country I really want to see given a chance at EU Accession is Cabo Verde. They've shown repeatedly that they want to join and have voluntarily, by their own efforts, made impressive reforms to bring their governancne up to scratch. Personally, I'd welcome them in, and I think having them as a members would be a big strategic benefit for the EU. It'd be a true win-win for everyone. The EU also needs to be looking north again, and thinking of new approaches we could use that could persuade Iceland to restart their accession talks, as well as Greenland re-entering the fold. Norway is a much harder one to tackle, but it's one we shouldn't shy away from. There's potential here for acknowledging some of the issues that caused these countries to be wary of the EU (i.e. teir historical fishing grounds) and working with them in a way that protects the regions most dependent on fishing (compromise for the sake of a major straegic mutual gain is more than worth it for the EU), whilst also protecting the fundamental role of the common fisheries policy and providing help and a way forward that would let them actually benefit from the system.
Small problem: Cabo Verde is not in Europe, and currently that's a membership requirement. (Not that I'd be against changing that. In the long term even some of North Afrika could be candidates if they choose that path).
@Zaydan Naufal is there really a problem with that though? Having Cabo Verde, Singapore and Japan in the EU would increase its strategic reach tremendously. On top of that, it's not like those countries would somehow be held to a lesser standard, just because they're outside of Europe. On the contrary, if those countries were to join, the standards we'd hold them to would probably be higher than those within Europe.
Norway and other Nordic countries have their own union with close ties to the EU in almost every way. They're part of the shengen area already, as well as many other treaties. There's no real gain for them to join explicitly. Non-EU countries do not belong in the EU. Since it has many regional policies that shouldn't be extended to unreachable or hard to enforce places. That would be a big money sink. Instead, things like the African Union should sprout with EU cooperation. There's potential everywhere. But geographically and often politically, it makes no sense to try to get everyone under one umbrella.
Serbia has too much beef with neighour like mentioned Kosovo but also with Bosnia and Herzegowina. It's sad that Serbia does not realise that those territorial beefs will have no grounds once the entire Balkans will be EU. For example in ireland where I live There are millions of people that are not Irish. 2 out of 4 millions on the island are Polish, Lithuanians, Latvians, Romanians, Armenians, Americans, British, Germans shitload of Spanish speakers from South America and guess what, no one fights anyone, we all do business and earn lots of euro money. Good Times. No need to argue about clay.
@@wallachia4797 No but as long as at least one dose it dose not matter. And those who don't recognize Kosovo still know there's a dispute that needs to be sorted out first.
Slim as long as Serbs keep on Serbing. Great if the Serbian public stopped seeing Russia as a great and wonderful friend and ally. At some point they will have to come to terms with having been the bad guys for over a century.
Hi. I'm a Member of the Bulgarian Parliament and I voted for the resolution related to North Macedonia proposed by Macron. Your video relays the information in broad strokes, but there are some massive oversimplifications. Many Europeans don't realize this, but the Balkans are a universe of our own. Inter-country relations on the Balkans are really complex, and there's more than 10 centuries worth of baggage we're carrying around as a result of the numerous conflicts in the region and of the communist times. The reasons Bulgaria vetoed North Macedonia's accession are long and complex. The French proposal is a good one, but despite that it was politically very very difficult to pass the proposal here in Bulgaria. While there were no major protests here, the government fell and the ruling coalition disbanded as a result of this decision. I do have to correct the following - Bulgaria is not insisting on a "Bulgarian minority" being recognized in N. Macedonia. Rather, our request is that Bulgarians be written into N. Macedonia's constitution as a "nation-creating people", among the Albanians, Serbs and other nationalities already mentioned there. This is a very delicate issue as we insist there is no Bulgarian minority in Macedonia, but rather the majority of people there have Bulgarian heritage. All the best, Stoil Stoilov
Thank you for your comment Mr. Stoilov. If you allow me to ask, are you afraid that despite this resolution being approved by the north Macedonian parliament, it might not be implemented in its constitution due to the need for a 2/3 majority which might not be possible? If so, what would this mean for North Macedonia- Bulgaria relations? Would a compromise still be possible? Also, what do you mean by Bulgarians being considered "nation-creating people"? Is that just regarding the Bulgarian roots of the north Macedonia language? Please forgive my naivety, I am not as well informed on Balkans history and politics as I would like to be.
@@markdowding5737 In regards to the "nation-creating people" thing - the constitution of North Macedonia already lists several (seven, I believe) ethnic groups as such "nation-creating people". Naturally, the Bulgarians have so far not been included, which is not surprising, considering how the Bulgarian historical heritage there has been consistently ignored, denied, and even outright destroyed (f.e. by the destruction of Bulgarian cemeteries, memorials, historical artifacts, monuments, inscriptions, etc; and that's just the tip of the iceberg). Though, in my personal opinion (as a regular citizen), we're focusing on the wrong things (just like the Greeks did with the name issue). Things like "nation-creating people" or the name of the language are of little significance, detracting attention from the real problems - the state-sponsored xenophobia (and particularly Bulgarophobia, in our case), hate-speech campaigns, and absurd historical manipulations at hand. After all, North Macedonia is a country whose national, government-backed and tax-sponsored TV created just 10-15 years ago a video, "Macedonian Prayer", where God literally says "I created the three races - the white Macedonoid one, the yellow Mongoloid one and the black Negroid one. All others are mulattoes." And whose people and even politicians call the Bulgarians "Mongol Tatars" and the Greeks - "Ethiopians/Africans", in an attempt at racial insult. I really don't see how they'll close the human rights chapter (in the foreseeable future) without help from "above"...
Apart from corruption that is present because ppl from EU enable it most Balkan countries have more rich tradition and standards than most EU countries. Civilization there is very old and much older than most EU civilizations. Anyway my point. Dont look down on ppl just because u think something is while it is not. That opens door for some good old fascist standards of EU. You know standards that almost destroyed whole world not long ago?
The Balkan countries are more modernized than countries like France and Germany who bring in terrorist immigrants into their own borders whilst they try to sanction everyone else for not bringing in foreign criminals.
What do you call modernization, stealing land from the farmers, or making your population poor through high taxation and eco friendly policies? Is this modernization? I've been to several "developed" eu countries and the biggest thing they have going for them is just the infrastructure. I hope EU citizens enjoy sleeping in the streets from the housing crisis.
That promise comes with conditions. If they don't meet criteria they can wait a lot longer if not forever. It's not a waiting game. It's a compliance game
@@thastayapongsak4422 hahahhaha, dude what? "more weakness the better" it's like saying the more skinny you are the better you will lifts weights... In order for the country to be strong, it has to have strong culture, strong wise agressive leaders, good doctrine, military etc, and what we see? None of that, just apologies for the past, more pacifism, twisted sexual and racial problems and some environment fanatics buying iphones from china, nothing else.
@@TommyElijahCabelloReal drain more resources than they bring in value, we are a trade union, not a charity fund for countries to come and suck us dry.
I think the EU should sort out a few things before admitting more members to the club. I think there should allso be the possibility to expel members if they don't behave according the rules.
@@vojdanuzunov5158 Sure if you want to go by technicality the video is correct, but the details that weren't explained play a huge part in understanding the actual situation of these two countries. In short, the creators of these videos are lazy and if they choose to do such a terrible job at making these videos they shouldn't be doing them at all.
@@excentrik5725 reflect on just want exactly do they want. They cannot be wanting to be part of the European project (and their money), and then undermine it from within.
ahahah 25 year for albania and macedonia to join eu greece dispute macedonia histroy province in greece greece disputed macedonia for over 25 years put the name north macedonia and macedonia should call it south
@@mrjuicejunior Is it really that unlikely?The E.U as it is issues passports, has it's own legislation (wich has more power than national laws),and the french are pushing for a unified "European Army" those pretty much seem like the actions of a state to me.
Nearly every time I see a map of the EU it's wrong. Usually they leave out my country (Ireland) because they forgot we're not Britain, first time I've seen them forget Sweden though. I mean, it doesn't change that often guys, just keep an accurate map handy and up date it every decade or so.
You can clearly see the blue filter on the left has taken Brittany, Portugal and most of Spain out too. So it's not just Ireland making your claim false. That's all it is a filter.
@@purplehaze8557 this is what people actually mean when they state they're against EU enlargements. If it's a less well-off country that will need thousands of billions of Euros to develop to at least an acceptable level within the EU, people always come with these worried attitudes. If it was Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, the UK, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco or Andorra wanting to join, they could actually feasibly join tomorrow and not many would complain.
I think I commented this before; but I think they'll accede North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro, all at once. Montenegro has a very small population and already, unofficially, uses the Euro. That would leave the next great hurdles in the Balkans; Bosnia and Serbia. EDIT: Given the recent gas deal between the EU and Azerbaijan, I wouldn't be shocked if the EU "sped up" the accession process of Azerbaijan as well.
@@huaiwei Azerbaijan isn't even that closely tied to Russia. In the South Caucasus region, Armenia is easily and by a large stretch the closest country to Russia. But I agree, out of Georgia and Azerbaijan, I see Georgia being way closer (and more willing) to join the EU and integrate into Europe. Azerbaijan so far seems to be alright by trying to keeo cordial ties to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Greece, the USA, the EU... while being increasingly suspicious about Iran and trying to discredit Armenia.
@@ivanmacgar6447 yes indeed Armenia is way closer and depends on them for defence against Azerbaijan (which obviously failed), while Azerbaijan was supported more by Turkey. I could not quire recall since the time I wrote that comment, but I think I had in mind those mentioned countries, and was thinking of Ukraine and Georgia as well, hence amongst those, Azerbaijan would have the closest link to Russia, even if it was more for strategic reasons, somewhat like Turkey.
Poor Macedonia ("North Macedonia") really has been through the wringer between Greece and Bulgaria. Fingers crossed everybody calms down, accepts that history ≠ reality today, and gets on with it!
Cyprus entered the EU because Greece threatened to veto all other candidates back in 2004 (Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) if Cyprus wasn't allowed in. Besides, there was a referendum in Cyprus shortly before the EU accession made by the UN where Cypriot reunification was voted. Northern (Turkish) Cypriots voted mostly in favour of unification, while Southern (Greek) Cypriots voted majority against it.
Can’t wrap my head around the fact that Bulgaria is in the eu and not Albania no hate for Bulgaria very nice country and friendly but is not even close to Albanian standards.
Albania has amazing people but the country is in very bad shape. It'd be very difficult to steer it in the right direction. More reforms are needed before accession takes place.
As an Albanian I agree. Big reforms needed to stamp out organised crime, I want to get rid of this Albanian mafia stereotype. Like other Balkan states in EU, we already have a big part of population that emigrated in last 20 years. Emigration has slowed down in recent years, I'm worried if we join in EU it will pick up.
@@jonizymberi6787 Certainly. I spent time in Albania last year and I met the nicest people ever, you have a gorgeous country. I hope more folks visit Albania and learn about it. But yes, hopefully reforms can help steer Albania in the right direction in the coming years. There's potential, but more work is needed. In terms of emigration, I suppose that if Albania was to join soon, you'd see many people leave in the short term, but as the country gets richer, it would stabilize at point.
Amazing people? Apart from Dua Lipa their biggest exports are conmen, thieves, drug peddlers, hookers and backwardness. The country is disgustingly corrupt and their are really retrograde, especially the ones who live in the countryside. Brutish lot.
Albania and Macedonia are planning to join the eu, for Albania it would be helping there economy to be able to contain there people and have better safety such as hospitals, also for there military because they haven’t grown in military and soon it could be possible if Albania having to join in the war in October 2nd 2022 that Serbia and Kosovo could have because of borders, Macedonia would use the chance to join the eu for military and economy like Albania because of the chances of war with Bulgaria and even Greece if war happens between it
This situation with Bulgaria rejecting Macedonian history and language reminds me a lot on the current situation in Ukraine where Russia rejects Ukrainian history and language. In both cases all of these countries use Cyrillic alphabets, but as Ukrainian Cyrillic is different from Russian, Macedonian Cyrillic is different from Bulgarian. There are similarities between these languages, but there are also differences and to some degree difficulties in communication. The only difference is that Bulgaria is part of NATO and didn't invade Macedonians, so they are not considered bad guys
The thing is that Macedonia is the one rejecting Bulgarian history, culture, language in the region of Macedonia and claims there were never Bulgarians there. This results in hate speech, discrimination of people with Bulgarian identity, destruction of Bulgarian monuments, property, etc. Macedonia is clearly the hostile one.
Serb. You have no right to speek about macedonia since it is your sh*ovin*ist*ic country that created the macedonian identity in the first place. I am glad that Kosovo is albanian.
Wasn't Bulgaria the first country to recognize NM independence? Considering NM was part of BG for a long time, I don't see why NM would deny their shared history and language with Bulgaria. If you read a bit on history, then you can see Bulgaria is in the right here. And I am saying this as an objective bystander, since I am from neither country.
Well you forgot that the 28th and 29th member states should be Montenegro and Serbia. They've been in the accession process for quite some time. I'm not saying they're actually gonna succeed but logically they're quite ahead.
I'd like to think so, but I doubt the EU would be keen on accepting the UK back any time soon. I think the UK would have to demonstrate they are really committed to it this time.
tbh i think in the long term it would actually be better for EU and UK to be independent of eachother but remain close similar to countries like Norway. While politicians on both sides were assholes at first and made those kinds of treaties difficult, i wouldn't be surprised if in time those bridges are slowly made. If the UK rejoins it'll just be the same as before
As an Albanian I would say that we are not bothered anymore and we are not in rushing at all of joing the EU.What is more important, we are not seeing EU as a life saver as it use to be many years ago.If they want us to join ok,if not still OK.We are not begging any more!!!🇦🇱🇦🇱🇦🇱
This video is a bit confusing. How is Albania tied in with North Macedonia's progress? Why do you talk about the constitutional amendmend not being likely to pass if apparently it was not necessary for the next step?
North Macedonia,if it really wants to be part of the EU has to give up their "invented" history , that means that they have to accept that the language they speak is the Bulgarian one, no need to try to full no one specially in the Balkans, they have to accept that they are part of the Bulgarian ethnic family thus an extension of Slavic peoples, (although around a third of people is of Albanian descent plus a significant amount of Gypsies) no need to try to convince themselves that are descending from Alexander's Greece just because they dont speak Greek and obviously as of the rest of the Bulgarian nation appeared in the Balkans around 12th century...Bulgaria cannot accept such a brutal falsification of the historical truth, and obviously Europe can't offer a seat in a "nation" who basically created by Yugoslav dictator Tito just because he wanted to "cut" Bulgarians living in the south of ex Yugoslavia from their brothers in the other side of the border....
British people are the only ones that (erroneously) refer to the EU as "Europe". Stop doing that, it's completely ridiculous. Both North Macedonia and Albania are already in Europe.
@@NAYRUthunder99 What? Point *was,* Europe is a *continent.* And about 1/3 of it is *not* in the economic coalition called the EU. You can't degrade people's identity like that, simply because their not in your elitist organization. 🤨 Switzerland, Norway, UK, Belarus, Serbia, etc. are not in the EU either - are they not still European countries? Lol (hint: they are)
The only main reason why Albania is not part of EU is the majority of muslims in my opinion! And the saddest fact is that Albania is really an example on religious cohabitation for EU and more…
Give China a chance and let them starting business with us like good old times. We're getting bored with so called pseudo western democracy of neo colonial empires.
Arguably North Macedonia and Albania would be 29th and 30th members, given that the UK still counts within the first 28th in an historical sense even though it's left. ;)
As a Bulgarian I'd also like to point out that even though our government firmly holds the belief that Macedonian is just another standardized variety of the Bulgarian language, most of our linguists and philologists reject this idea. Actually just a few days ago there was an interview with a professor and the host looked flabbergasted when the professor swiftly denied that idea. When it comes to the recent history of Bulgarians and Macedonians, both sides spread countless lies. Sadly, to me it seems like this issue isn't coming to a proper close. The nationalists are strongly set in their ways and on the other isle people just seem to sideline the issue.
@@ivantsachev2520 Съжалявам, но това е прекалено голям въпрос за развиване в раздела за мнения на едно видео. Мимоходом на български език наименованията на езиците не се пишат с главна буква.
@@wizardite Наистина не е толкова сложно. Очевиден е факта, че Македонският език произлиза от Българският. Дали в днешно време може да се нарече диалект е спорно, но е явно на много хора, че двата езика имат голяма прилика, по-голяма от приликата им с други славянски езици. Общо взето не разбирам какво се цели със абсолютното отричане на това Македонският език да произлиза от Българският.
its same as US claiming they speak American which has nothing to do with English and Americans come up with the American language which Britain stole and changed to English. And Britain having a problem with that. That`s a example of the language problem between MC and BG
If you get a chance to visit the area you will understand lol. I am from Albania and even Bulgaria has vested interest in some southeastern parts of Albania. I was there this summer and went close to the Macedonian border and that is Albanian territory but the majority of people are Macedonian or simply speak that language and they drive around in cars with Bulgarian tags, makes sense lol. There are citizens in my city who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship if the can prove they are from a certain region and they give it to them. All in hopes that one day they can have support to takeover those territories and for these people its hope that they can actually travel europe freely after that point. Balkan ethnic tensions and history is still alive today in their politics so this is no suprise.
@@andidede3653 You sound like you're puttin everything on the Bulgarians here. And I had a Macedonian just a few days back admit to me, when I drilled on the subject, that they *hate* the Bulgarians - bc of past ethnic rivarly, and whatever happened in history. That's why they want to deny their history so on. So, this is not a case of "Bulgaria is the problem in the Balkans". Serbia is more problematic, tbh - and I'm sorry but your argument that Bulgaria is giving citizenship to those of Bulgarian descendence, supposedly _"All in hopes that one day they can have support to takeover those territories"_ - is a bad faith argument. Like, *what?* Many countries offer such citizenship to the people that used to live in their former domains. Hungary does it, Romania does it. *Albania* does it for the people in Kosovo, on the grounds of ethnicity. And so on - it doesn't mean any of these countries are "planning a takeover". 🤨
@@georgeskanderbeg3242 Refugees are a few thousands not millions and they don't have a veto power like Orban does, when they're the same religious, racist and homophobic stuff. We're better off without those old-minded and corrupt countries that only want the money from the west but not our values.
Just a quick note: The title states Armenia, not Albania. There’s quite a few hundred kilometres in between.
@TLDR News EU this is quite the fail
Time to correct the title?
I feel like this isn’t at all the first one these. If you want people to think the information is legit, getting things like the countries straight would be a good one.
only thing is albania will never join the eu ore nato rama is a bad man who keeps coming into macedonia
Armenia: 😀
Tldr: sry, typo.
Armenia: ☹️
Usually you guys are quite good at this so I’ll point it out assuming you haven’t realised but your map for the EU in the thumbnail is a little off, Ireland isn’t included in the EU but Switzerland is. Regardless, love all your work, and loved the video :)
Apparently, half of Denmark is outside the EU as well. That is news to me
same for the Spanish baleraric islands
@@Maitch3000 Everyone knows that copenhagen is not actually part of the EU.
@@Maitch3000 Greenland?
@@docb2049 Too many tourists to call it Spanish anymore.
Is it really that difficult to show an accurate map of the EU?
Yes
You'd think not
I like how half of Denmark's in and the other half is not
sometime i think they do it deliberately to increase comments.
@@MisterTipp It’s not like Denmark actually exists anyway 🤷♂️
An important moment that was omitted: With the beginning of the EU accession negotiations, Albania and North Macedonia receive the status that two Balkan countries already have: Montenegro and Serbia. Without this information, it appears that Albania and North Macedonia are the only countries in the region that are close to becoming members of the European Union.
And Albania's reasons for not being approved were omitted entirely, with a detailed focus on North Macedonia. One would suspect that Albania being a huge supporter of Kosovo separatism from Serbia would factor into Serbia not being too enthused about the prospect.
I don't see Serbia becoming a member anytime soon. Specially after the war.
I'm a Serbian, and I deeply sincerely hope that my country will never become a part of the EU
@@danijelagrujic823 Why is that?
@@djo.djo97 bc serbs are pretty much like russians
If you make such obvious mistakes like marking switzerland and liechtenstein as EU members on your map, what other things might be wrong? As a serious political channel there should be more effort put into the videos. Still, very interesting topics well narrated. Just put in more quality checks next time please!
this kind of carelessness explains the lapsus in the headline: albania/armenia
It was probably just because it would look better on the thumbnail with the stars and everything
@@LivelyMD Could be, but its also true that their quality control is lacking. In most videos they have obvious mistakes: wrong maps, diffrent data shown than said by the presenter, cut off sentences, random Letters in the middle of texts and those are just the things i can recall from top of my head. They probably want to release videos ASAP so they sacrifice the quality little bit.
He is just a rat sucking up to ppl making comments.
@@kosaraczek1 I guess there's only like 4 of them, and they're just infants in comparison to mainstream media.
The North Western countries are not in the mood to have another Hungary in the EU. Corrupt to the core, blocking laws with vetos whilst being the biggest recipients of EU funds. The potential new member have a lot to gain from joining, but what do they have to offer to counter the risks?
Westerners have no idea of the sheer amounts of manpower they get from Central and Eastern Europe.
Look around in your country and see how many engineers and surgeons are Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Polish etc.
On top of all that, Germany and France get export markets which boosts their economies by a lot and is not very different from how Germany would've liked to see Eastern Europe after it won WW2.
The West has a lot to gain, you need to stop complaining.
Not just the North Western man.. not even Italy who is (at least in terms or budget) a net contributor or Spain want a nother Poland or another Hungary..
A single country shouldn't be able to veto anything. Also, Hungary should have been sanctioned to the ground, but no, the western elite let Viktor Orbán to cement his power by the help of the EU funds.
EU should be reformed before any new members join, and I am saying it as a Hungarian.
Yup. No wonder Orban has been a big supporter of expanding the EU in the Balkans region. As a Hungarian, it would be devastating for us if we left the EU (although I think Orban will formally initiate Huxit in about 3 years), but the EU would function much better without us.
Got to love those Brussels subsidies in exchange for doing absolutely nothing...
While this video supposedly treats both countries, it seems like North Macedonia is the primary focus and Albania is simply described as slow. Meanwhile Albania has been vetoed repeatedly for different reasons from Greece, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark (if not even more countries). Is this not worth exploring at all?
Albania going to have a lot harder time getting in to the EU than north Macedonia due to there Islamic majority in the country, which many countries will veto due to Islamic phobia.
Yeah Macedonia has been vetoed by Greece and Bulgaria
@@jasondevereux6030 nah 3/4 of the country are not even religious. Albania is full of corruption though
@@georgeskanderbeg3242 still identify as Muslim tho, which will frighten a lot of westerns to block them. Sad but it’s the hard truth. Albania would be the first Muslim nation to join the Eu
@@jasondevereux6030 I mean France has more ☪️ then the entire Albania and so does Germany. If they were so Islamophobic I don't think they would allow them to migrate in the first place
North Macedonia's name controversy with Greece seems quaint compared to the whole "Macedonian is just a written regional norm of the Bulgarian language".
This is just the Serbo-Bosnian-Croatian thing all over again.
The South Slavs are, socio-politically, so damn messy. (Edit: Know what, it's the entirety of the Balkans, not just the South Slavs)
Thinking about it, I wonder why the Germans were able to form a unified identity in a few decades after unification but not the Yugoslavs.
well the germans didnt form a unified entity completely. austria, switzerland and luxemburg stayed out.
exactly ahaha. The czechs/slovaks get along well even if super similar to eachother lol
The South Slavs are, socio-politically, so damn messy. - Yes, we are. And that's with the strong support of the great powers who have an excellent track record of stimulating that situation.
Because slavs are unruly unlike Germans who are ordered
@@xgladar
Well, to be fair, post-WW1 there were significant support in Austria for unification but was blocked by the Versailles Treaty.
Like, the closest the South Slavs got to be like the Germans nowadays would be after WW1 with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
I would be happy to see them come in. We should all help eachother all over Earth.
Yeah but not balkans. Eu should implement a law that stops anyone from Serbia, Albania, Greece, turkey from leaving their countries/ coming to west Europe
@@chrislouis7913 😂😂😂😂 and yet you allow millions of refugees from Africa and Asia you absolute 🤡🤡🤡. These places had civilization long before you did
@Don´tbehasty don’t worry you have admitted because 1.5 milion from 2.8 Albanians live and have EU or UK or Us passport and life stay in EU so probably you should visit Balkans from Serbia to Albania to understand why they are very great people
That is very kind of you thank you
@@chrislouis7913goddamn who hurt you😂 but keep your African immigration I guess, it’s a great way to end up like France rn
The thumbnail has so many weird errors. Switzerland is included in the EU meanwhile Ireland is not. And for some reason only half of Denmark is included. Come in guys, all your videos have 50 mistakes when it comes to spelling, maps, and information in general.
They produce many videos tho, give them a break, but for the things that are used many times they could fix them..
We want quality over quantity
Is Denmark really real?
@@vietinternational5746 nah this commenter had just never heard of the Republic of Zealand
Who tf cares
1:35 Wrong coat of arms.
3:15 You misspelled Macedonia…
They also wrote stabalisation
Also incorrect EU map and apparently originally said Armenia and not Albania (subsequently fixed)
Macedonia is Greece!
@@HeroManNick132 Well they should have told Belgrade that when they created the slavic Macedonia. Too late now.
Also wrong map swisterland isnt in eu my god so many mistakes
As a Greek-Swede I like both N. Macedonia and Albania, I hope they will meet the required criteria in the near future so we can welcome these two nations into the EU family 🇸🇪🤝🇦🇱🇲🇰
I only hope that they will be compliant and cooperative with the rest of the union to support and strengthen our shared values and not pull a complete Orbán on us.
Hopefully this shit union disolves asap!
@@HeroManNick132 Why would you say that?
1:13 “some 20 years ago in 2003”
that hit hard
It's really interesting to see how missunderstood the North Macedonia - Bulgaria issue is in the EU. Not only does Bulgaria want to disprove the language of another sovereign nation, they also want to effectively meddle in the internal affairs into another independent country. The language and rhetoric used by Bulgaria, is the same Russia uses against Ukraine. But When Bulgaria does the same ti another country, the EU is very much fine with it, because it's them doing the deed.
At the same time what Bulgaria wants from North Macedonia is them to change their school books, and permanently delete everything related to Bulgaria during WW2 (Does this remind anyone of anything?). Even though Bulgaria was part of the Nazi regime in WW2 and deported over 11,000 Jews to Treblinka from North Macedonia's territory, while killing thousands of citizens, now they are blocking North Macedonia because schoolbooks in Macedonia reffer to Bulgaria as beging an occupator during WW2, which it was.
At the same time, Bulgaria's former MOD Karakachanov even threatened North Macedonia with war in 2020/21. At the same time, the EU Justice Court has a verdict against Bulgaria for mistreating Macedonian minority in the territory of Bulgaria, straight out making their lives miserable on purpose. Not investigating this issues fully is a hallmark of an amateur channel, discussing serious topics.
The difference is that North Macedonia was never really a country before 1991. There is no such a language. All they do us steal history from Bulgaria and Greece. In other words it's a narion of brainwashed bulgarians
From a Macedonian POV you are literally like the second non Macedonian dude I have seen on the internet that is understanding the problems Bulgaria is causing both to Macedonia and the EU.
You literally blatantly steal history from your neighbours and claim the historical figures them as yours. How you are not ashamed of your roots and writing hateful Serbian propaganda essays!
Serbs occupied you before thanks to Tito and Stalin and the biggest national traitors - Dimitrov.
@@leonid4781 Откога Леонид стана ,,македонско" име?
@@HeroManNick132 Get a life bro
Oh, how I love the balkans and their unique talent of complicate everything for no fucking reason because NaTiOnAlIsM
Meanwhile...no current EU member has problem with nationalism
to be honest this is all of Europe continent to different levels to understand the nuance of political situation I need 8 history books.
I'm going to be honest I didn't want to be any other way .
Oh, how I love Western Europe and their unique talent of shoehorning everything for no fucking reason because pRoGgReSsiViSm
@@wallachia4797 progressivism > nationalism.
@@wallachia4797 one question why did you write like "pRoGReSsiViSm" instead "progressivism" ???.
I am just confused that's all .
They should already be in the EU, especially if highly corrupt Romania and Bulgaria were able to join.
Wtf are you talking about, bro? Lol, corruption is on average much worse in the West Balkans & Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, etc. - than it was with Romania & Bulgaria.
On average, Romania & Bulgaria were a lot more stable and in much better shape - that's why they turned towards the EU early & were able to enter soon after the other 10 states of 2004.
@@dyawr The Western Balkans have made much more progress than the other you mention, especially Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania. Meanwhile Romania and Bulgaria were allowed in due to their GDP and size, they are far more corrupt. Compare Albania’s judicial system with Romania’s and see which one meets and exceeds EU standards, and which one does not. Also Romania and Bulgaria had much less requirements to enter the Union.
@@forzaazzurri1471 Source "trust me bro"? Lol
Romania & Bulgaria had the same requirements as the first 10 countries that acceeded in 2004.
Looking at the Corruption Perception Index ranking for 2021, we see the following order:
...
63. Croatia
64. Montenegro❗
*66. Romania*
73. Hungary
78. Bulgaria
82. Belarus
87. Kosovo
87. North Macedonia❗
98. Serbia
105. Moldova
110. Albania❗
110. Bosnia & Herzegovina
122. Ukraine
There is literally *1 point* difference between Montenegro & Romania. And *6 points* difference between Romania & N. Macedonia. Also *10 points* difference between Romania & Albania. (as score)
You are literally talking out of ur @ss right now. And what is your basis of comparison between Albania's judicial system & Romania's? 🙂 And how come there are *44 positions* between them (in favour of Romania), on the CPI ranking list - if Albania is so reformed?
@@forzaazzurri1471 All countries (EVEN THE US) are corrupt, it's just more behind the curtain type of thing. Go watch house of cards ffs and stop talking shit about countries you've never been to.
@@janignacio7810 I agree with you, in the US corruption is even legalized and called “lobbying”. My point is if Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU, there is no reason why Albania shouldn’t be in as well.
I always thought Albania had a super villain flag.
if you look at it at a specific angle you can see what is hidden behind our innocent 2 headed eagle symbol
We're the final boss of Europe
I've always loved their flag, it's easily one of the coolest!
to understand European politics In most cases
can be described in the sentence
"Please open the history book on the site 1) medieval 2) antiquity 3) from 18 to 19 century 4) ww1 5) ww2 6) cold War 7) "90"/."
to understand the Political problem.
@Zaydan Naufal and Confrontation was due to some ridiculous dreams on the part of Indonesia thinking they own this region. Glad reality put them back in their place.
Bosnia should face inland problems first. Serbia and Kosovo still have problems with each other. So it's logical Albania and North Macedonia should join next. Montenegro as well. All 3 are pretty small so it shouldn't be a big problem.
The hard part is that everybody already in the EU have to say yes. And when you need a yes from someone they might want something in return. Like Greece and Bulgaria (maybe more) It will be interesting to see how it develops...
If quality of living increases in those country's we could all benefit. Beautiful country's for tourists. Also the house prices here are huge so living in an other EU country could be interesting...
I'm really pro-EU, but its not the time to expand the block, we need to solve many problems inside the block before thinking of expanding, specially in the Balkans
I'm for the expansion since i view it was neutral.
The potential downfalls due to borrowing have been mended, and the stronger economies in the EU have shown to be resilient.
Peoples fears are always disproportionally due to immigration, as they perceive it as a reduction in quality of life for themselves. It's hard to adress those fears.
I understand that most of the euro skepticism is unfounded and exaggerated, although we can't have an union expansion without solving the breach in rule of law problems that have been happening with many member states (mainly, but not exclusively, Hungary).
Albania and North Macedonia have very small population and territory, they will be no problem for EU.
Tell that so Serbians your EU bombed. And to Russia who requested to be included in the EU, yet was denied. Because they are also part of Asia, while France has territories in America.
@@thanasisrks4944 Russia never tried to join the EU. And they wouldnt be allowed to anyways due to the fact that they dont meet the democratic criteria. It has nothing to do with them have territory outside of Europe. Cyprus is completely in Asia and they are in the EU
I think the main reason North Macedonia has waited so long to finally start some development is that both countries have changed leadership and prime ministers in the past year. This was the key factor for the two sides to talk about future cooperation and not just about historical issues.
I am macedonian and our government is fucking mafia.
Criminal, corruption and drugs everywhere.
It was impossible for them to join with old name - macedonia - since Greece said they would block their entry
Technically as it’s said in the video Albania didn’t request any advancement towards the EU up until 2014. Edi Rama was made prime minister in 2013 and he’s made the most progress than any other former prime minister. He also initiated the creation of open Balkans a parallel organization in non-EU balkan states.
@@1queijocas They changed their name years ago.
we waited cause of one of our former Prime Ministers held a dictatorship till 2011 sad
Greece applied for membership in the EOC all the way back in the early sixties but due to the economic stagnation that Greece was experiencing around that time and a dictatorial government that lasted from 1967 to 1974 our application was disregarded. Attempts to join the EOC began almost immediately in 1975 -76. Officially we became members in 1981. A little patience is essential for all the EU members to approve these new candidates.
Yiasou Theo, as an Aussie-Greek I'm a little out of touch with affairs of back home. I wonder if you could
let me know what triggered Grexit and how did it fail. Was there a move to go back to the drachma?
It sounds to me, like in Britain at the moment the people wanted an exit, but the rotten corrupt politicians
did not allow it...there is a strong parallel case in both with the EU being the clue that links both.
@@anthonypagourelias9516 Antony hi. well as in all things Greek, things are complicated and because of that we have to start from the beginning. In 2009 Greece was hit severely hard from the global recession, in the previous years we had taken large loans with which many projects were founded but as always due to corruption a large sum from these loans ended into the pockets of the politicians. We almost, I believe, declared bankruptcy since we were unable to pay back these loans. Other countries mainly Germany intervened to revitalize the Greek economy and avoid bankruptcy which would have harmed not just us but the entire union. A committee of technocrats was formed known as Troika which oversaw the aspects of the Greek economy vital to the economic restrengthening of the country. The committee imposed certain guidances known as μνημόνια -i think we had three of those or four I don't remember exactly- . These rules meant higher taxes, further centralization and cuts in all services and radical austerity measures. Since our entry into the Union there were those that wanted a return to the drachma and the exit but they were a minority and still are. Sidenote drachma currently is worthless the Greek governments of the late 90s until 2002 lowered the value of the currency so much that joining the Eurozone was the only way to avoid rampant inflation. I might be wrong on that but it is my understanding that, that's what happened. Anyway back to 2012 when the voices for grexit were more vocal than ever before but still we were recuperating from the economic impact of the recession and no referendum was held. In 2015 if I remember correctly a referendum was held but it wasn't a referendum on whether or not to leave the EU but it was heavily implied. The referendum of 2015 was whether or not to accept further economic support from the EU. The majority of the Greeks said no but a few months later everything went to hell as capital control was imposed and were were forced to accept economic support. Troika in its stay in Greece had many names but they departed in 2019 I think. Ever since the country has been improving economically. The truth is though that the entire EU has been facing several problems with euroscepticism and such people still exist in Greece but no grexit, I don't think is going to occur any time soon and as I explained a return to the drachma is foolish and catastrophic for the economy.
@@theodorevogiatzis874 Wow, nice message, thank you!
Not when Russia is trying to muscle in
Grecce it’s bankrupt and was going to be expelled by EU😂 grecce today it’s just France Puppet ❤
I think the conditions for entering should be strict not to weaken the core, nobody wants another Poland or another Hungary.. but another Lithuania would be more than welcome.. losing the unanimity vote would help tho.. maybe a qualified majority would work better..
What's the problem with Poland in the EU ?
@@notproplayer3649 The Poles are fine people, It's just the PiS government and their undermining of the rule of law.
@@Perplexum how?
@@Perplexum what's wrong with the PIS government, what did they do ? They were elected democratically.
Give me some examples ...
@@notproplayer3649 cracking down on the independent judiciary?
Both nations are already in Europe. Europe isn't the EU
New members: Wales, Scotland, "Northern" Ireland
It's unlikely Northern Ireland would become a new member. It would become part of the EU by joining an existing member state.
Wales voted to leave the EU.
Welcome to E.U. bureaucracy. We'll see you in another 20 years: 2042 Maybe then we miiiight reconsider your membership, and if we do reconsider it, it'll only take another 20 years to 2062. Congratulations on being so close to membership! \o/
The point of being a EU memeber is to contribute to the alliance in some way and not just suck money out of the rest of the members, like all balkan countries do. Once you realise this you will understand why it takes so long.
@@time.dealer exactly this! It takes time to join the EU because it takes time to get your shit together. While a person can make changes to their life in a few months and a year at most for some of the bigger changes, for a country you're looking at a decade at least.
And considering that EU values not only consider an economy that gives back to the alliance but also a number of more liberal views on rights and corruption, there's a lot of stuff for some countries to sort out, especially old soviet block nations.
@@time.dealer To be fair it should be mentioned that the country that's sucking the most as you say(better known as net beneficiaries) is Poland.
Moldova must be in the EU. They chose democratic values and independence from Russian influence and corruption. Moldova ( = Basarabia) is mainly land that belonged to Romania but was snatched by Russia in their ex-comunist era. The official language of the Moldavians is exacly romanian...they speak romanian although they also speak russian as a result of the years they were occupied by the Russia. Stalin's regime deported many moldavians to the Gulag and tried to Russify the population of Moldova. I'm from Romania and i support Moldova. Russia has also done us(to Romania, my country) a lot of harm after she secound world war.. We were under the communist regime for many years until the revolution of 1989 when we overthrew the dictator Ceausescu's regime
moldova is too poor right now and they are occupied by russia in the north.
tito?
Thank you man. I am really happy to see such overwhelming support form our Romanian brothers. I am from the Republic of Moldova but I feel Romanian and I wish our two countries were united again. We still have a lot of work to do before entering the EU, but at least Moldova's population understood how corrupt and unpatriotic the pro-russian parties are. Dodon and a couple other socialist politicians are now being judged (for corruption, trădare de patrie, etc) and hopefully will get the sentence they deserve. With Romania by our side, our journey towards the EU will surely be easier.
@lati long , that's a too long discution. The Transnistrian problem("") is created by the Russians( not by the actual Ucraina government), by using some local pro-russian(russian and russified) population and a corrupt local(transistrian) regim(supported by Russia) , as are the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk provinces artificially created in Ucraina. If Transnistria was Ukrainian territory many years ago then I can also say that Ukraine owns muuuch more land taken from Romania by the Russian Comunist regim. Ucraina have more ex-Romanian territories forcibly incorporated within the former U.S.S.R. - respectively Northern Bucovina, Herța land, Hotin land as well as in the counties of southern Basarabia BUT the peacefull romanian people is not imperialist, arrogant and doesn't creates conflicts at any cost. Some historical losses due to the greed of the Russians have been left behind by us and life goes on. Romania hasn't the wealth and the large weapons of America BUT WE FULLY SUPPORT AND HELP UCRAINA according to our possibilities ... food, medicine, we shelter refugees, etc. We are an UE country ....we have democracy..... we RESPECT, admire the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom and democratic values....against russian corruption and imperialism. The history of Russian politics is one of atrocities...greed, lies and crimes ... they annexed territories from various countries and later Russified them. Ukraine has such territories( that belonged to other countries) and others countries from the ex-comunist USSR have too .....BUT this is the fault of the Russian regime(U.S.S.R) and not of the actual Ukrainian people .... it's pure history, the truth. SO FUCK PUTIN (and Russian imperialism). SLAVA UCRAINA and PEACE.
@@77belts , doesn't matter if they(Moldova) are poor. I AM A POOR (country)TOO compared to others( countries). They will be in UE and we( Romania) support them too. Democracy will win
Doesnt Montenegro have the highest chance of joining?
I thought Montenegro was already in the EU?
It does, they totally excluded it from the video
I'd say so. Montenegro > NM > Albania > the rest, imho.
yes, it does. it has a fairly high living standard, if not for europe, for the balkans at least, plus it uses euro as their currency. but who knows, maybe the friendship with serbia is holding them back
@@anotheranon3118 nah, AL and NM will join together at the same time.
3:38 - As a Bulgarian, I think your framing here is a bit off. The main issue isn't the language, in fact as far as I'm aware Bulgaria isn't demanding that the EU adopt Bulgaria's positions, only acknowledge that this is the position we hold. The actual reason for the "veto" was the historical revisionism and misrepresentation of key historical figures, as well as NM not following the 2017 treaty of friendship,which included forming of a commission on historical matters. Since then, the commission came to several definitive conclusions, only for NM to back away from them and stall the progress being made. Additionally you imply this issue only arose *after* the Greece name dispute was resolved, which is not the case, there have been tensions between Bulgaria and NM in terms of historical revisionism for decades.
Who gives a fuck about some historical figures from centuries ago. The French claim Karl the Great to be solely french all the time and Germany doesn’t Veto them. That’s just childish imo.
Cheeres for your input. From the outside it looks like very petty demands towards NM if you don't have a good understanding of the relations and history in the region.
@@MrXxHunter just cause you are an idiot who have no identity and don’t expect others to be as well. Have fun having no self identity and history soon! ; )
It was Bulgaria that backed away for unknown reasons, your information is a bit out of date.
@@MrXxHunter The disputed period is between 1879 and 1945, ending less than a century ago (seeing as the commission already agreed on the main medieval dispute). In addition, I don't see how incorporating European historiography and discouraging misinterpretations of the past that aren't in line with the European accepted norm, are not a desirable thing for a country applying to join the EU.
With regards to the language dispute, however, I completely disagree with our government's position, it's quite silly not to acknowledge a language, regardless of the basis on which it was formed or the length of time that has passed since its codification.
I love your content but why do you always forget to include Crete in Greece?It's a big island
Most probably, Montenegro would be the next one, as its negotiations are the most advanced of the 4 active candidates (with Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia)
On paper yes they are more advanced, but I know that Albania has already been working on chapters on its own before talks even began and it is further ahead than Montenegro in terms of reforms, while Montenegro is technically much behind, in 10 years of talks they have provisionally (subject to further review) closed only 3 chapters. So Albania does have a really good chance of being the 28th EU member.
@Albanian I'm not sure about that. For what I know it's not a prerequisite. Some EU members do not recognize the independence of Kosovo (Spain, Greece, Romania, Cyprus...). And Kosovo is not part of EU nor a candidate.
How could Greece demand more from countries wanting to become EU members when it was being the economic craphole of EU itself?
Well, I think their hissy-fit was before the financial crisis in 2015... and they were a pretty old, strong member in the EU - whose opinion & political sway carried a lot of weight.
All members need to agree same with Bulgaria the poorest member can block any new members
Because Greece is very important for spending holidays for lots of Europeans. Especially high ranked rich important Europeans.
Greece was the first member to join the eu before the starting countries in 1981
Because thats the idea of EU ? Not only the rich to decide everything ?!?! It should be full consensus.
Regarding the thumbnail, when did Switzerland join the EU? Or Liechtenstein?
1. Not the map of the EU
2. Albanian coat of arms when talking about ~North~ Macedonia
The history of "Macedonian" nationalism and Bulgaria is, of course, complicated since the 19th century.
Then again, as an EU citizen, I hope they both join ASAP. Actual events are showing us that we need to be together or perish alone.
4. Title states Armenia instead of Albania. Which is why I clicked on the video. As I was confused why a CSTO member was close to join the EU.
@Zaydan Naufal typo. But thanks. How are you grammar nazi?
@@dylanvogler2165 Now it says ArNenia. 🤭 See... anybody can make & maintain a mistake, even when they're focused on getting things right.
@@dyawr I honestly sometimes hate autocorrect.
@@dyawr but they did change the title. So that's great tbh
Finally, some good news for my country
?
I hope you're not talking about Macedonia.
My number 1 news platform, thank you for what you do!
This video has typo's:
Title, "Armenia" should be Albania.
"Stabalization" should be Stabilization.
Should be considered a regional "Norm" of the Bulgarian language, should be form.
Norm is correct.
@@olamsoevik No it's not. Written is Norm, but he said form in the voiceover. So one of the two is a mistake
Or ideally "stabilisation" in UK and Irish English.
Hopefully, Europe can eventually be united by the EU. Not sure if the "EU" should include Russia, but it should definitely include the Balkans, Belarus and especially Ukraine.
It should at some point. But both Ukraine and Russia aren’t ready yet.
@@Tommi414 Hopefully Russia collapses because of the war in some years and a democratic and free government is established so that Russia can rejoin the west as it was once part of it from 1703 to 1917, i bet Russia would have begged to be part of a EU, this adversity to "the West" is an unfortunate remnant of the Soviet Union and Cold War Mentality.
It's very sad how far they fell from Peter the Great dream of becoming a EUROPEAN player.
@@Anis-zc9rw "this adversity to "West" is not just due to cold war mentality but also NATO mentality that shares opinion Like you that Russia hopefully collapses
Russia will leave Europe it won't be European country its slowly shifting toward Asia and the capital of russia will be moved to the east not moscow
Can you talk more about the bulgarian demands, not just the minority. The minority is the people that have dual citizenship *bulgarian and macedonian*. They only do it to get EU passports so that they can work abroad, now Bulgaria wans them to be recognised as Bulgarians not as Macedonians.
framework does not work anymore sorry bulgars
@@chrisb2743 Haha, you still living in North Monkeydonia?
@@chrisb2743 Actually it does mate. When Northmacedonians apply for a Bulgarian passport, they sign a declaration stating that based on their Bulgarian roots, they require Bulgarian citizenship. Same is applied with everyone with Bulgarian heritage worldwide. We all know why they are doing it, but when the EU comes and asks around on the matter, the numbers don't lie, 100.000+ northmacedonians have confirmed their Bulgarian roots on a binding document and require their "new" motherland to provide them with access to the EU.
While I think Albania has a *lot* of work to do, N Macedonia has made signifcant steps, and I think is on the right track, and in time I believe both countries can be meaningful contributors to the EU, not just (or even neccessarily) in financial terms, but in political and social contributions, much as the Baltic states are seen today.
That said, the country I really want to see given a chance at EU Accession is Cabo Verde. They've shown repeatedly that they want to join and have voluntarily, by their own efforts, made impressive reforms to bring their governancne up to scratch. Personally, I'd welcome them in, and I think having them as a members would be a big strategic benefit for the EU. It'd be a true win-win for everyone.
The EU also needs to be looking north again, and thinking of new approaches we could use that could persuade Iceland to restart their accession talks, as well as Greenland re-entering the fold. Norway is a much harder one to tackle, but it's one we shouldn't shy away from. There's potential here for acknowledging some of the issues that caused these countries to be wary of the EU (i.e. teir historical fishing grounds) and working with them in a way that protects the regions most dependent on fishing (compromise for the sake of a major straegic mutual gain is more than worth it for the EU), whilst also protecting the fundamental role of the common fisheries policy and providing help and a way forward that would let them actually benefit from the system.
@Zaydan Naufal you say this like there wont be a future where our goals truly do allign. each continent is trending to behaving as a bloc.
Norway has actually made it to public vote twice to join EU. Both of them a no. And both Where basically flipping a coin
Small problem: Cabo Verde is not in Europe, and currently that's a membership requirement.
(Not that I'd be against changing that. In the long term even some of North Afrika could be candidates if they choose that path).
@Zaydan Naufal is there really a problem with that though? Having Cabo Verde, Singapore and Japan in the EU would increase its strategic reach tremendously. On top of that, it's not like those countries would somehow be held to a lesser standard, just because they're outside of Europe. On the contrary, if those countries were to join, the standards we'd hold them to would probably be higher than those within Europe.
Norway and other Nordic countries have their own union with close ties to the EU in almost every way. They're part of the shengen area already, as well as many other treaties. There's no real gain for them to join explicitly.
Non-EU countries do not belong in the EU. Since it has many regional policies that shouldn't be extended to unreachable or hard to enforce places. That would be a big money sink. Instead, things like the African Union should sprout with EU cooperation.
There's potential everywhere. But geographically and often politically, it makes no sense to try to get everyone under one umbrella.
Could you do a video explaining the situation regarding Serbia? What are their chances of getting in?
@Cassandra Mel Not all EU countries recognize Kosovo as an independent country.
Serbia has too much beef with neighour like mentioned Kosovo but also with Bosnia and Herzegowina. It's sad that Serbia does not realise that those territorial beefs will have no grounds once the entire Balkans will be EU.
For example in ireland where I live There are millions of people that are not Irish. 2 out of 4 millions on the island are Polish, Lithuanians, Latvians, Romanians, Armenians, Americans, British, Germans shitload of Spanish speakers from South America and guess what, no one fights anyone, we all do business and earn lots of euro money. Good Times. No need to argue about clay.
@@wallachia4797 No but as long as at least one dose it dose not matter. And those who don't recognize Kosovo still know there's a dispute that needs to be sorted out first.
Slim as long as Serbs keep on Serbing. Great if the Serbian public stopped seeing Russia as a great and wonderful friend and ally. At some point they will have to come to terms with having been the bad guys for over a century.
If Albania joins before Serbia it will never happen unless Serbia recognizes Kosovo
Macedonia was in the UN known as FYRoM: The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Yes but even Adam and Eva were only two people on earth ! What does that mean to make again just 2 of them or to develop ?
Yes
Macedonia must become a member of the EU in 2025, because it deserves it
In thumbnail Switzerland is included :)
They appear to have swapped with east Denmark and Ireland.
We can only dream unfortunately
My biggest nightmare...
Hi. I'm a Member of the Bulgarian Parliament and I voted for the resolution related to North Macedonia proposed by Macron. Your video relays the information in broad strokes, but there are some massive oversimplifications.
Many Europeans don't realize this, but the Balkans are a universe of our own. Inter-country relations on the Balkans are really complex, and there's more than 10 centuries worth of baggage we're carrying around as a result of the numerous conflicts in the region and of the communist times.
The reasons Bulgaria vetoed North Macedonia's accession are long and complex. The French proposal is a good one, but despite that it was politically very very difficult to pass the proposal here in Bulgaria. While there were no major protests here, the government fell and the ruling coalition disbanded as a result of this decision.
I do have to correct the following - Bulgaria is not insisting on a "Bulgarian minority" being recognized in N. Macedonia. Rather, our request is that Bulgarians be written into N. Macedonia's constitution as a "nation-creating people", among the Albanians, Serbs and other nationalities already mentioned there. This is a very delicate issue as we insist there is no Bulgarian minority in Macedonia, but rather the majority of people there have Bulgarian heritage.
All the best,
Stoil Stoilov
Thank you for your comment Mr. Stoilov. If you allow me to ask, are you afraid that despite this resolution being approved by the north Macedonian parliament, it might not be implemented in its constitution due to the need for a 2/3 majority which might not be possible? If so, what would this mean for North Macedonia- Bulgaria relations? Would a compromise still be possible? Also, what do you mean by Bulgarians being considered "nation-creating people"? Is that just regarding the Bulgarian roots of the north Macedonia language? Please forgive my naivety, I am not as well informed on Balkans history and politics as I would like to be.
You just present a very articulate reason why the EU should keep the Balkans out of the EU. What a shit-show...
@@markdowding5737 In regards to the "nation-creating people" thing - the constitution of North Macedonia already lists several (seven, I believe) ethnic groups as such "nation-creating people". Naturally, the Bulgarians have so far not been included, which is not surprising, considering how the Bulgarian historical heritage there has been consistently ignored, denied, and even outright destroyed (f.e. by the destruction of Bulgarian cemeteries, memorials, historical artifacts, monuments, inscriptions, etc; and that's just the tip of the iceberg).
Though, in my personal opinion (as a regular citizen), we're focusing on the wrong things (just like the Greeks did with the name issue). Things like "nation-creating people" or the name of the language are of little significance, detracting attention from the real problems - the state-sponsored xenophobia (and particularly Bulgarophobia, in our case), hate-speech campaigns, and absurd historical manipulations at hand. After all, North Macedonia is a country whose national, government-backed and tax-sponsored TV created just 10-15 years ago a video, "Macedonian Prayer", where God literally says "I created the three races - the white Macedonoid one, the yellow Mongoloid one and the black Negroid one. All others are mulattoes." And whose people and even politicians call the Bulgarians "Mongol Tatars" and the Greeks - "Ethiopians/Africans", in an attempt at racial insult. I really don't see how they'll close the human rights chapter (in the foreseeable future) without help from "above"...
I support intergration of all the Balkan countries, but ONLY IF THEY ARE MODERNISED TO EU STANDARDS!
Apart from corruption that is present because ppl from EU enable it most Balkan countries have more rich tradition and standards than most EU countries. Civilization there is very old and much older than most EU civilizations. Anyway my point. Dont look down on ppl just because u think something is while it is not. That opens door for some good old fascist standards of EU. You know standards that almost destroyed whole world not long ago?
The Balkan countries are more modernized than countries like France and Germany who bring in terrorist immigrants into their own borders whilst they try to sanction everyone else for not bringing in foreign criminals.
I was mainly thinking about living standards and the whole justice system being uncorrupted so it can go after politicians.
@@newfaith912 Lol mate civilisation in western Europe is just as old as eastern Europe. Especially in Italy.
What do you call modernization, stealing land from the farmers, or making your population poor through high taxation and eco friendly policies? Is this modernization? I've been to several "developed" eu countries and the biggest thing they have going for them is just the infrastructure. I hope EU citizens enjoy sleeping in the streets from the housing crisis.
That promise comes with conditions. If they don't meet criteria they can wait a lot longer if not forever. It's not a waiting game. It's a compliance game
Who cares China,Turkey and Russia are possible candidates to have great relationships with them.
Cheers mate and have fun
Its not a compliance game when you keep setting the barrier higher and higher
I think you meant Albania not Armenia in the title. I got a good chuckle out of it XD
I wish it was Armenia instead of Albania that was about to join EU 😭
@@chrislouis7913 armenia is not in Europe you clown. When Albania joins EU I want to taste your salty 😭😭😭😭
@@chrislouis7913Armenia is not even in Europe lol
Nobody will be laughing once the EU announces the “European World”.
Oh god human rights and democracy in all countries ? So horrible, how could we live with this !
Since France still has quite a few overseas territorities technicaly it already is.
i much more liked the imperial countries than these now..... too much weakness
@@Dragon-mv6vy more weakness the better. We need a good country, not a strong but shitty one.
@@thastayapongsak4422 hahahhaha, dude what? "more weakness the better" it's like saying the more skinny you are the better you will lifts weights...
In order for the country to be strong, it has to have strong culture, strong wise agressive leaders, good doctrine, military etc, and what we see? None of that, just apologies for the past, more pacifism, twisted sexual and racial problems and some environment fanatics buying iphones from china, nothing else.
i really hope we get in EU in my life time
Yes you will.
@@kevinh4869 Name why you hope not
Where are you from
@@TommyElijahCabelloReal drain more resources than they bring in value, we are a trade union, not a charity fund for countries to come and suck us dry.
@@9_9876 Albania
I think the EU should sort out a few things before admitting more members to the club. I think there should allso be the possibility to expel members if they don't behave according the rules.
Totally agree with you. Specially with the possibility of expel members that after joining decide not follow the rules that they agreed.
they made a few other mistake in the last few months that has made me question how credible the info is considering how quick it comes out
Everything that he said was on point. Of course there are a LOT details to be explained, however the video is correct.
@@vojdanuzunov5158 Sure if you want to go by technicality the video is correct, but the details that weren't explained play a huge part in understanding the actual situation of these two countries. In short, the creators of these videos are lazy and if they choose to do such a terrible job at making these videos they shouldn't be doing them at all.
An original video after two re-uploads? 🤩
Did you just write Armenia instead of Albania in the title?
What am I missing?
red and black i dress eagle on my chest good to be an albanian keep my head up high for that flag i'd die im proud to be an albanian
Drz ga drz
why solo?
@@arrore Because, they are solists
Shouldn't the title be "Are Albania & North Macedonia about to join the EU", not Armenia.
Get Albania and Macedonia into EU but hold Serbia on arm length for another 25 years until they have come to some self reflection
@Divedown25 what self reflection are you talking about?
@@excentrik5725 reflect on just want exactly do they want. They cannot be wanting to be part of the European project (and their money), and then undermine it from within.
@@huaiwei what is a “european project” by your opinion? What did Serbia do?
ahahah 25 year for albania and macedonia to join eu greece dispute macedonia histroy province in greece greece disputed macedonia for over 25 years put the name north macedonia and macedonia should call it south
I can't believe it still says Armenia instead of Albania after 16 hours
As an Albanian myself, I feel pretty happy (even tho I live in the USA)
As an Albanian myself, I feel pretty unhappy (even tho I live in the Albania)
@@tediprifti4348 why?
@@mrjuicejunior Germany is making plans to form a "European Federation", wich means that if we do join the E.U later on we will lose our independence.
@@tediprifti4348 I highly doubt it's gonna happen because Europe is diverse
@@mrjuicejunior Is it really that unlikely?The E.U as it is issues passports, has it's own legislation (wich has more power than national laws),and the french are pushing for a unified "European Army" those pretty much seem like the actions of a state to me.
North Macedonia immideatelly should change her name to Republic of Macedonia. Who agrees with me,please like my comment.
Stop begging you won't change anything by getting likes.
Sweden isn't highlighted as part of the EU on the map
Nearly every time I see a map of the EU it's wrong. Usually they leave out my country (Ireland) because they forgot we're not Britain, first time I've seen them forget Sweden though. I mean, it doesn't change that often guys, just keep an accurate map handy and up date it every decade or so.
@@Whelknarge same with Cyprus, i mean i know we small, but damn why u gotta be so hurtful
No you can see that the tip of Scania is blue, but they missed the entire Eastern half of Denmark
You can clearly see the blue filter on the left has taken Brittany, Portugal and most of Spain out too. So it's not just Ireland making your claim false. That's all it is a filter.
EU can NOT afford new members currently.
Correct. Especially 2 which are poor as hell, and corrupt.
only albanians can afford is zaev
@@chrisb2743 WTF
@@purplehaze8557 this is what people actually mean when they state they're against EU enlargements. If it's a less well-off country that will need thousands of billions of Euros to develop to at least an acceptable level within the EU, people always come with these worried attitudes.
If it was Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, the UK, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco or Andorra wanting to join, they could actually feasibly join tomorrow and not many would complain.
Thumbnail just annexed Switzerland
You are talking about Macedonia but showing some contract with Albanian cote of arms
I think I commented this before; but I think they'll accede North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro, all at once.
Montenegro has a very small population and already, unofficially, uses the Euro.
That would leave the next great hurdles in the Balkans; Bosnia and Serbia.
EDIT: Given the recent gas deal between the EU and Azerbaijan, I wouldn't be shocked if the EU "sped up" the accession process of Azerbaijan as well.
@Zaydan Naufal So that just leaves Bosnia?
Which seems as unlikely as Turkey and Armenia at this point
Azerbaijan being so closely linked to Russia will be problematic too. Georgia wants in far more than them.
@@huaiwei Azerbaijan isn't even that closely tied to Russia.
In the South Caucasus region, Armenia is easily and by a large stretch the closest country to Russia.
But I agree, out of Georgia and Azerbaijan, I see Georgia being way closer (and more willing) to join the EU and integrate into Europe. Azerbaijan so far seems to be alright by trying to keeo cordial ties to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Greece, the USA, the EU... while being increasingly suspicious about Iran and trying to discredit Armenia.
@@ivanmacgar6447 yes indeed Armenia is way closer and depends on them for defence against Azerbaijan (which obviously failed), while Azerbaijan was supported more by Turkey.
I could not quire recall since the time I wrote that comment, but I think I had in mind those mentioned countries, and was thinking of Ukraine and Georgia as well, hence amongst those, Azerbaijan would have the closest link to Russia, even if it was more for strategic reasons, somewhat like Turkey.
Poor Macedonia ("North Macedonia") really has been through the wringer between Greece and Bulgaria. Fingers crossed everybody calms down, accepts that history ≠ reality today, and gets on with it!
Wow, you feel emotional on irrelevant country on the Balkans that no one talks about it?
Racist much? Grow up.
@@jmpht854 Are you from there? Also do you live in North America for thinking that I am "racist?"
1) None of your business, but Africa here 🙋🏿♂️
and
2) Grow up.
They won't give us a break lol 🥲
Am I dyslexic or is it Armenia written in the title instead of Albania? *facepalm*
Cyprus acceded even with the Northern Cyprus issue. It’s such a faux pas to make the accession road more difficult for the Western Balkans.
Cyprus entered the EU because Greece threatened to veto all other candidates back in 2004 (Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) if Cyprus wasn't allowed in.
Besides, there was a referendum in Cyprus shortly before the EU accession made by the UN where Cypriot reunification was voted. Northern (Turkish) Cypriots voted mostly in favour of unification, while Southern (Greek) Cypriots voted majority against it.
Exactly. So it can be done.
Can’t wrap my head around the fact that Bulgaria is in the eu and not Albania no hate for Bulgaria very nice country and friendly but is not even close to Albanian standards.
Albania has amazing people but the country is in very bad shape. It'd be very difficult to steer it in the right direction. More reforms are needed before accession takes place.
As an Albanian I agree. Big reforms needed to stamp out organised crime, I want to get rid of this Albanian mafia stereotype. Like other Balkan states in EU, we already have a big part of population that emigrated in last 20 years. Emigration has slowed down in recent years, I'm worried if we join in EU it will pick up.
@@jonizymberi6787 I'm Albanian and I live in the US so yeah you're right
@@jonizymberi6787 Certainly. I spent time in Albania last year and I met the nicest people ever, you have a gorgeous country. I hope more folks visit Albania and learn about it.
But yes, hopefully reforms can help steer Albania in the right direction in the coming years. There's potential, but more work is needed.
In terms of emigration, I suppose that if Albania was to join soon, you'd see many people leave in the short term, but as the country gets richer, it would stabilize at point.
@Zaydan Naufal 😂😂
Amazing people? Apart from Dua Lipa their biggest exports are conmen, thieves, drug peddlers, hookers and backwardness. The country is disgustingly corrupt and their are really retrograde, especially the ones who live in the countryside. Brutish lot.
Ownership of Macedonia (North & Otherwise) formed a big part of 1st and 2nd Balkan Wars the prequel to the Great War (aka WW1).
My dude Armenia and Albania are not equivalent
Not sure why nobody is mentioning the fact that the title says Armenia
The title’s wrong. EU instead of Europe
Congrats to both nations. I hope it works out and you can join the club 🙌
@@d3metrius And u are?
Albania and Macedonia are planning to join the eu, for Albania it would be helping there economy to be able to contain there people and have better safety such as hospitals, also for there military because they haven’t grown in military and soon it could be possible if Albania having to join in the war in October 2nd 2022 that Serbia and Kosovo could have because of borders, Macedonia would use the chance to join the eu for military and economy like Albania because of the chances of war with Bulgaria and even Greece if war happens between it
I’m just not sure
This situation with Bulgaria rejecting Macedonian history and language reminds me a lot on the current situation in Ukraine where Russia rejects Ukrainian history and language. In both cases all of these countries use Cyrillic alphabets, but as Ukrainian Cyrillic is different from Russian, Macedonian Cyrillic is different from Bulgarian. There are similarities between these languages, but there are also differences and to some degree difficulties in communication. The only difference is that Bulgaria is part of NATO and didn't invade Macedonians, so they are not considered bad guys
The thing is that Macedonia is the one rejecting Bulgarian history, culture, language in the region of Macedonia and claims there were never Bulgarians there. This results in hate speech, discrimination of people with Bulgarian identity, destruction of Bulgarian monuments, property, etc. Macedonia is clearly the hostile one.
Not invading definitely helps with not being seen as evil.
Serb. You have no right to speek about macedonia since it is your sh*ovin*ist*ic country that created the macedonian identity in the first place. I am glad that Kosovo is albanian.
Wasn't Bulgaria the first country to recognize NM independence? Considering NM was part of BG for a long time, I don't see why NM would deny their shared history and language with Bulgaria. If you read a bit on history, then you can see Bulgaria is in the right here. And I am saying this as an objective bystander, since I am from neither country.
@@dobripvalov So that's why you reject Macedonian history, culture, language and claim that Macedonians never existed? This goes the same for you, too
Please fix the title! Now it’s saying Armenia instead of Albania
Well you forgot that the 28th and 29th member states should be Montenegro and Serbia. They've been in the accession process for quite some time. I'm not saying they're actually gonna succeed but logically they're quite ahead.
You guys are also welcome back to the EU as well.😉
It would cost too much,but thanks for the kind thoughts.
I'd like to think so, but I doubt the EU would be keen on accepting the UK back any time soon. I think the UK would have to demonstrate they are really committed to it this time.
Ew, no. Keep the EU away from us
tbh i think in the long term it would actually be better for EU and UK to be independent of eachother but remain close similar to countries like Norway. While politicians on both sides were assholes at first and made those kinds of treaties difficult, i wouldn't be surprised if in time those bridges are slowly made.
If the UK rejoins it'll just be the same as before
North Macedonia - a short guide how to lose your national indentity on the road to the EU.
На китарата Васко Жабата...
As an Albanian I would say that we are not bothered anymore and we are not in rushing at all of joing the EU.What is more important, we are not seeing EU as a life saver as it use to be many years ago.If they want us to join ok,if not still OK.We are not begging any more!!!🇦🇱🇦🇱🇦🇱
Welcome BRICS
The title says Armenia lol you misspelled a whole country hahaha
You guys are better than this.
This video is a bit confusing. How is Albania tied in with North Macedonia's progress?
Why do you talk about the constitutional amendmend not being likely to pass if apparently it was not necessary for the next step?
Because they are considered a package deal by the EU.
Their fates are tied.
They either both go in or both are stalled.
Turkey literally waiting for like 70 years or so
staying neutral is much better
North Macedonia,if it really wants to be part of the EU has to give up their "invented" history , that means that they have to accept that the language they speak is the Bulgarian one, no need to try to full no one specially in the Balkans, they have to accept that they are part of the Bulgarian ethnic family thus an extension of Slavic peoples, (although around a third of people is of Albanian descent plus a significant amount of Gypsies) no need to try to convince themselves that are descending from Alexander's Greece just because they dont speak Greek and obviously as of the rest of the Bulgarian nation appeared in the Balkans around 12th century...Bulgaria cannot accept such a brutal falsification of the historical truth, and obviously Europe can't offer a seat in a "nation" who basically created by Yugoslav dictator Tito just because he wanted to "cut" Bulgarians living in the south of ex Yugoslavia from their brothers in the other side of the border....
wait till he hears about the vlaci
So you basically admit the point of all of this is to throw NM into humiliation?
Good to know.
@@ivanmacgar6447 i think at this point they just want more heroes to add to their collection
British people are the only ones that (erroneously) refer to the EU as "Europe". Stop doing that, it's completely ridiculous. Both North Macedonia and Albania are already in Europe.
We are Atlantis baby
Americans do it too
Would you say Italy is not really Italy because San Marino is independent?
@@NAYRUthunder99 What? Point *was,* Europe is a *continent.* And about 1/3 of it is *not* in the economic coalition called the EU. You can't degrade people's identity like that, simply because their not in your elitist organization. 🤨
Switzerland, Norway, UK, Belarus, Serbia, etc. are not in the EU either - are they not still European countries? Lol (hint: they are)
*I agree.*
Just a tip, I think it would be better to title it "The EU's Next Two Members?", you're gonna confuse the Americans again lol
The only main reason why Albania is not part of EU is the majority of muslims in my opinion! And the saddest fact is that Albania is really an example on religious cohabitation for EU and more…
Give China a chance and let them starting business with us like good old times. We're getting bored with so called pseudo western democracy of neo colonial empires.
Why does the description say Armenia but the video says Albania?
Albania, really? Have you ever been there?
yes we have , great place great people :)
@Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg he is a Russian troll
@Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg 95% e komenteve anti shqiptare jane o serb ose sllav. Me I kliku profilet shifet nga cile vend vijne
I’m 100% sure you haven’t be there!! Godman bc !! 100% sure!
@@gotshot8355 Of course I have been that's why I wrote this comment. It was my most 3rd world country experience.
Arguably North Macedonia and Albania would be 29th and 30th members, given that the UK still counts within the first 28th in an historical sense even though it's left. ;)
As a Bulgarian I'd also like to point out that even though our government firmly holds the belief that Macedonian is just another standardized variety of the Bulgarian language, most of our linguists and philologists reject this idea. Actually just a few days ago there was an interview with a professor and the host looked flabbergasted when the professor swiftly denied that idea.
When it comes to the recent history of Bulgarians and Macedonians, both sides spread countless lies. Sadly, to me it seems like this issue isn't coming to a proper close. The nationalists are strongly set in their ways and on the other isle people just seem to sideline the issue.
Можеш ли да елаборираш на твърдението си, относно Македонският език бъдейки динстинктивен от Българският?
@@ivantsachev2520 Съжалявам, но това е прекалено голям въпрос за развиване в раздела за мнения на едно видео. Мимоходом на български език наименованията на езиците не се пишат с главна буква.
@@wizardite Наистина не е толкова сложно. Очевиден е факта, че Македонският език произлиза от Българският. Дали в днешно време може да се нарече диалект е спорно, но е явно на много хора, че двата езика имат голяма прилика, по-голяма от приликата им с други славянски езици. Общо взето не разбирам какво се цели със абсолютното отричане на това Македонският език да произлиза от Българският.
I see you corrected the thumbnail, but I see and another error: Lichtenstein are coloured as an EU member state...
00:15 this map is a disrespect to Switzerland
They will enter all 6 in 2024
You mean 2124? No thank you
It's so bizarre to me that the names of countries and the classification of languages/dialects matters at all in a process like this.
That’s the balkans for you lol
Fr...
its same as US claiming they speak American which has nothing to do with English and Americans come up with the American language which Britain stole and changed to English. And Britain having a problem with that. That`s a example of the language problem between MC and BG
If you get a chance to visit the area you will understand lol. I am from Albania and even Bulgaria has vested interest in some southeastern parts of Albania. I was there this summer and went close to the Macedonian border and that is Albanian territory but the majority of people are Macedonian or simply speak that language and they drive around in cars with Bulgarian tags, makes sense lol. There are citizens in my city who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship if the can prove they are from a certain region and they give it to them. All in hopes that one day they can have support to takeover those territories and for these people its hope that they can actually travel europe freely after that point. Balkan ethnic tensions and history is still alive today in their politics so this is no suprise.
@@andidede3653 You sound like you're puttin everything on the Bulgarians here. And I had a Macedonian just a few days back admit to me, when I drilled on the subject, that they *hate* the Bulgarians - bc of past ethnic rivarly, and whatever happened in history. That's why they want to deny their history so on.
So, this is not a case of "Bulgaria is the problem in the Balkans". Serbia is more problematic, tbh - and I'm sorry but your argument that Bulgaria is giving citizenship to those of Bulgarian descendence, supposedly _"All in hopes that one day they can have support to takeover those territories"_ - is a bad faith argument.
Like, *what?* Many countries offer such citizenship to the people that used to live in their former domains. Hungary does it, Romania does it. *Albania* does it for the people in Kosovo, on the grounds of ethnicity. And so on - it doesn't mean any of these countries are "planning a takeover". 🤨
NO more homophobic countries in the EU.
No! More of them, many more!
And yet you allow millions of homophobic refugees 😂😂🤣😂🤣😂
@@georgeskanderbeg3242 Refugees are a few thousands not millions and they don't have a veto power like Orban does, when they're the same religious, racist and homophobic stuff. We're better off without those old-minded and corrupt countries that only want the money from the west but not our values.
They are not more homophobic that all the eu countries!
@@purplehaze8557 Yes! More!
This is a very strange map in the very beginning of your video (0:10). Why Sweden is not part of the EU, but Switzerland is?
" Talk, talk is better than War, war. "