In an article dedicated to the European Council Summit to be held on June 23 and 24, the prestigious British BBC News writes that there is hope that Albania and North Macedonia will make progress in terms of aspirations to obtain EU candidate status.

The BBC News article writes that the countries of the Western Balkans, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been candidate countries for years.

EU leaders are expected to meet with their Western Balkan counterparts this morning, ahead of the main summit.

Also, BBC News writes that Ukraine applied a few days after the Russian invasion in February and since then the process has progressed at a record speed.

Candidate status is the first official step towards EU membership, and France said this week that there was a total consensus on Ukraine. But it can take many years to come together and there is no guarantee of success.

/Klara Ruci/