France keen to pause EU enlargement

France wants to pause EU enlargement pending major reforms, in what some fear could "destabilise" the Western Balkans.

"We would like to see the [European] Commission put on the table a new methodology for accession negotiations that makes them less technocratic, more political, and reversible," a French diplomat told EUobserver.

The current method, which sees the EU open "chapters" in negotiations without being able to close them again if candidate states backslide, "does not ob...