The European Union should start membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania to finally fulfill its promise of integrating the Western Balkans, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday on the second day of a tour of the region, Reuters reports.

Speaking in Skopje, Scholz said the Russian occupation of Ukraine made it important for Europe to stand together, and he praised North Macedonia’s support for sanctions against the Kremlin.

“It is very important to bring a new dynamic to this process,” Scholz told a news conference with North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski. “I will advocate for the next steps to happen.”

Supporters of Albania’s EU membership and the countries that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia and the ethnic wars of the 1990s say this will ease regional tensions, counter growing Russian and Chinese influence, and raise living standards.

Four countries, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania, already have candidate status, although the latter two have not started accession talks. The overall process has stalled in recent years amid doubts about the wisdom of further EU enlargement.

Scholz, who established himself as a mediator during his trip to the Western Balkans, will travel to Sofia on Saturday, where he will hold talks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.

The chancellor has made the entry of the Western Balkans into the EU, to ease growing regional tensions and to counter Russian and Chinese influence, a foreign policy priority.

On Friday, he visited Serbia and Kosovo, where he urged leaders to reach an agreement on normalizing relations.