The Balkans to the EU: "Stop talking about the sex of angels while the gates of Constantinople are collapsing"

• European Union The unrest in the Balkans threatens to embitter the European Summit

• War in Ukraine One step, one symbol and one trap: Ukraine's accession to the EU will not be soon or easy

In the corseted world of Brussels, where almost everything is resolved without fanfare, through eternal and technical negotiations, when someone raises their voice the echo resounds everywhere.

This Thursday, the 27 have met in the community capital with the neighbors of the

, the applied students, the outraged friends because after spending eight years (like Albania) or 18 (like North Macedonia ) waiting for the opening of negotiations see how

.

And the anger has been so extraordinary, so aggressive, so clear and public, that the echo has been heard throughout the continent.

"I beg you not to let the EU be a congregation of Church doctors arguing about the sex of angels while the gates of Constantinople are collapsing.

," Albanian Prime Minister Edi lamented. Rama, after the failed meeting.

"They promised us that the negotiations would be opened unconditionally, but here we are waiting. What is happening is a serious problem and a blow to the credibility of the EU, we are losing precious time, time that we do not have. We cannot allow bilateral issues to become multilateral problems," added Dimitar Kovacevski, Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia.

The day has been an absolute disaster.

The meeting was not well enough prepared.

The idea was to reassure those who are waiting, but

.

The Government, about to fall, did not carry out the vote that should have served to lift the veto that Sofia has maintained for the opening of negotiations with North Macedonia for years on very sensitive issues of national identity, history and myths.

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The Bulgarian Parliament should have taken the baton, but the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee has deliberately absented herself to stop the process.

And, as a consequence, everything stops.

.

In the end they came, and decided that since there would be no political advances, they would put on a media show.

The press conference of the three leaders was a spectacle in a Brussels little accustomed to outbursts.

With jokes, jokes and harsh phrases.

They were not the usual submissive and complacent candidates.

They have shouted, attacked, responded.

"It is a disgrace. We have done a lot, we have made very difficult decisions, we are determined to Europeanize ourselves, it is time for the EU to fulfill its promise before doing more," the Macedonians denounce.

Rama, a politician who is starting his third term, without mincing words and with little to lose, has taken the lead, acting as spokesman for his partners.

Ironizing about Serbia's ties with Russia, about the -absurd- problems of Greece or Bulgaria with the names of Macedonia or its language.

But above all with community demands.

"Albania has been waiting for 8 years and I have had to win three elections to try to start those negotiations. It is important to tell the truth, the reason is not simply Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a disgrace, but it is not the reason, it is the corrupt spirit of the process of enlargement. One NATO member is holding two more hostage while

and 26 countries look on helplessly. We are told that Putin is very sick, perhaps, but the EU certainly does not seem very healthy Neither. Russian aggression is being generously aided by one NATO country, Bulgaria, to destabilize another," he lamented.

The blow has been noticed and the comparison with 'Waiting for Godot', Beckett's immoral play that the Balkan leaders have staged on their social networks has attracted the attention of journalists from all over the planet.

Enlargement has been stopped for five years and there is very little appetite, because

.

But all that rhetoric and narrative has come crashing down with Ukraine and Moldova.

Accelerating the steps so that both receive the status of a candidate country changes everything, leaves the 27 and the institutions in a compromised position, and a reaction is needed.

The first step is to go towards what Emmanuel Macron has called

or what in the language of the European Council, as will be reflected in the conclusions of this summit, is called at least 'Wider Europe', a broader Europe.

Find something, an intermediate step, so that the candidates feel much closer, more integrated, during the process.

With more ties, more connection, more European funds.

Now it's time to decide who can aspire to it, what they can choose and when.

The reaction to the Balkan anger has been immediate.

The 27, when they were left alone in the room, did not address the Ukrainian issue, as planned, but instead continued with the Balkan issue.

Diplomats have moved en masse to try to justify themselves, to admit mistakes, to explain that their bosses have taken note and are going to work, starting today, to reform, change, improve and streamline the process.

The door is still closed, but at least they will have to open a small window.

The pressure in the Balkans is increasing every day,

and the dangers to the continent, for centuries, have come wave after wave from that region.

When the gates of Constantinople stopped holding.

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