| The EU made the difficult decision on Wednesday (25 September) evening, to de-couple North Macedonia from Albania on their EU path and to start accession negotiations with Tirana, leaving Skopje behind. We do not know why, but the EU used to group countries in their EU accession process. Bulgaria was coupled with Romania until both joined in 2007, and even after both were scrutinised for progress under the rule of law, within the so-called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. Happily, CVM is now water under the bridge. In the same way, the EU coupled North Macedonia with Albania ten years ago, and it was widely assumed that both would move together on the accession process. North Macedonia (then called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) became a candidate for EU accession in 2005, fourteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. Since then, 20 years have elapsed, and nothing has changed—the country has not started accession talks. In comparison, Bulgaria applied for EU accession in 1995, started negotiations in 2000, and joined the EU in 2007: a total of 12 years. We could extrapolate that if North Macedonia had progressed at the same pace as Bulgaria, it should have become an EU member in 2017. Albania became an EU candidate much later than North Macedonia—in 2014—but it has already left Skopje behind. Next month, Albania officially starts accession talks, while North Macedonia remains in limbo. If there is one word, to sum up what is preventing North Macedonia from advancing on its EU path, this word is nationalism. For many years, Skopje provoked Athens by claiming large chunks of history, including Alexander the Great and the Vergina Sun as its flag, as its own. | 
