Croatia has made good progress in meeting the benchmarks set in the accession negotiations. This surfaced today during the presentation of the EU 2009 enlargement strategy and progress reports for the countries from the Western Balkans and Turkey.

Albania has continued to make some progress in strengthening its government structures. At the same time, it needs to further strengthen the capacity, coordination and strategic planning for EU integration, reads the European Commission’s 2009 progress report for the country.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn says the European Commission, EC, has recommended that Macedonia start its EU accession negotiations. The move marks the country’s first major step towards integration in the bloc since it was granted the status of an EU candidate state in 2005. However, the report has not …