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After the European Union took just weeks to decide on candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova, Western Balkan countries - some of which started their accession path more than a decade ago - felt the bloc owed them a sign.

Half of them Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia threatened to boycott a summit with EU leaders just two days before it was meant to take place.

At the eleventh hour, Bulgaria's opposition leader announced that his party would lift its veto on North Macedonia accession based on a compromise proposal brought forward by the French presidency of the Council.

But this may be the only sign the Western Balkans receive this week with an EU diplomat stressing on Wednesday that there were "no conclusions foreseen nor very concrete decisions" to expect from EU heads of state on Western Balkan enlargement during their Council summit on Thursday and Friday.

That means that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo will, once more, be kept waiting.

EU leaders are, however, widely expected to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate status, days after the Commission recommended such a step and weeks after they filled out all the necessary paperwork.

In contrast, Bosnia and Herzegovinaapplied to join the bloc in 2016 and has yet to receive candidate status despite the Commission endorsing the move in 2019.

Albania applied in 2009, received candidate status in 2014 and got an all-clear from the Commission to start negotiations in 2018. But they have not yet started.

Serbia also applied in 2009, got candidate status in 2012 and started negotiations in 2014.Montenegro has a similar trajectory. It applied in 2008, secured candidate status in 2010 and accession negotiations started in the summer of 2012.

But the longest-standing bid is North Macedonia's. The country of two million inhabitants first applied in 2005 with the Commission recommending that negotiations start in 2009. They have not yet started.

Kosovo, meanwhile, is a potential candidate but despite first signalling it wants to join the bloc back in 2008, it is nowhere closer. That's because its independence is not recognised internationally, and especially not by Serbia. Instead, the EU acknowledged its European perspective, another symbolic gesture that makes note of its aspiration to become a member state.

The Commission emphasised earlier this week as it endorsed granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova that the whole accession process is "merit-based" and "dynamic".

Neither Ukraine nor Moldova will be entitled to more EU funds and it doesn't mean that negotiations will start anytime soon.

Instead, the Commission and EU leaders will demand they both make progress on reforms to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, media and civil society as well as independent institutions that fight against corruption and cronyism. Only when they have made significant progress on these conditions, will actual negotiations be allowed to proceed.

And even after negotiations start, the whole process can falter if reform progress doesn't continue at pace, according to the Commission.

This largely explains the delay for Serbia "as it is not in President Vucic's interests to enact reforms that EU membership requires, as these would undermine his patronage system and his hold on power," Luigi Scazzieri, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.

EU candidate countries are also expected to align themselves with the bloc's policies and programmes and "there is a serious lack of alignment" from Serbia, an EU diplomat said. For instance, Serbia has condemned Russia's aggression on Ukraine but has so far refused to implement any sanctions against Moscow, a step Brussels traditionally expects from its partners.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is also in that category, according to another EU official who affirmed on Wednesday that "for two years we have seen no reform and no movement from Bosnia" on the 14 priorities the EU outlined it needed to work on.

Yet, for all of its claims that reforms mean progress, this has not been the case for North Macedonia and Albania.

"The two countries have done everything that the EU has asked them to do, so the EU going back on its word and refusing to open negotiations as it said it would undermines its credibility,"Scazzieri explained.

Their bid was first blocked byFrance and the Netherlands which argued the enlargement process needed to be improved before new countries were brought into the fold and then by Greece over a dispute over the country's name which led to a historic deal between the two countries in the summer of 2018. Now it's being blocked by Bulgaria.

Sofia wants formal recognition that North Macedonia's culture and language are heavily influenced by Bulgaria as well as stronger protections for the country's Bulgarian minority.

Albania, whose bid is coupled with North Macedonia's, has been collateral damage.

But now that the leader of Bulgaria's opposition,Boyko Borissov, has said he is in favour of a French proposal to unblock the situation, which would entail North Macedonia adding an amendment to its constitution to acknowledge its strong historical and cultural links with Bulgaria in exchange for Sofia backing the negotiation framework, movement could soon happen.

It is dependent on Macedonian lawmakers backing it by a two-thirds majority as required for constitutional changes.

The delays for Albania and North Macedonia have had a "negative impact on the credibility of the EU," the Commission underlined in its latest annual enlargement report.

For Dimitar Bechev, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, "there are two schools of thought" on the war's impact on enlargement.

"One is saying that now the EU is unfair because it's paying so much attention to Ukraine and letting the Western Balkans slip. But also there's a school of thought which goes something like: there's momentum behind enlargement, let's get on the bandwagon and get the Western Balkans on the radar. The overall is that there's expectation that the EU should be more forthcoming," he told Euronews.

This could also open the door to movement for Bosnia and Herzegovina despite the lack of overall progress.

"If Ukraine and Moldova are given candidate status, the case for granting Bosnia candidate status as well would be stronger, given that many EU leaders have said Ukraine and Georgia are still a long way from membership," Scazzieri at the Centre for European Reform pointed out.

"Bosnia's institutions are still very dysfunctional. If Bosnia does become a candidate, it will face a very uphill path," he said.

For Serbia however, the events in Ukraine do not change much, and progress is unlikely "so long as Kosovo is there," Bechev said.

"If there was no sovereignty dispute, you could see Serbia making strides and basically because it has the administrative capacity and the size and everything and some friends in the EU. They could have been easily the next country to accede to the EU but Kosovo is such an impediment," he went on.

Bechev now predicts that Montenegro is the most likely to join the EU first.

"It's the most advanced in the negotiations, it has no open political issues with neighbours, it's very small and it's digestible," he said, adding that all that needed his political will on both sides and the country of 620,000 could be a member by the end of the decade.

Conscious of the idea taking root in the Western Balkans that no matter how much they reform, their membership bids may not progress accordingly, the EU is now looking into a European Political Community to which third countries could dock themselves to and have closer ties with the bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron first floated the idea during a conference in early May but has publicly remained light on the details. He has however reiterated multiple times that this would not be a consolation prize and that countries could be part of the community as they continue their accession journey.

EU leaders are expected to discuss the idea during their summit on Thursday and an EUdiplomat from Western Europe said their country is very open to such an idea, underlining however that member states would have to come up with criteria for who could join it. These could include, they said, shared democratic values with the EU which would therefore exclude counties such as Belarus under its current regime.

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How close are the Western Balkans to joining the European Union? - Euronews

Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have all seen price increases exceeding 90%. PHOTO BY JAMIE ON UNSPLASH

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In the six years since British voters opted to leave the European Union in June 2016, home prices have skyrocketed across both the U.K. and Europe.

However, uncertainty surrounding Brexit put a years-long damper on prices across the U.K., which didnt complete its departure from the EUuntil early 2020. As a result, European housing markets appear to have the edge over the U.K.s, according to a report Wednesday by Knight Frank.

All told, home prices in Knight Franks Global House Price Index in the 27 countries that make up the EU have increased by 39.3% since June 2016, with nearly half of that growth occurring in the past two years. In the U.K., home prices have increased by 30.8% since the Brexit vote.

More:Manhattan Luxury Sales Just Had Their Slowest Week Since December 2020

Central European countries have seen particularly strong price growth, with Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic all seeing price increases exceeding 90% in the past six years. The Netherlands and Luxembourg saw the next highest rates of price growth, at 76.3% and 70.1%, respectively. Lithuania, Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany all saw rates of growth higher than 50%.

Italy, Spain and Greece experienced some of Europes lowest price growth during the same period, and may see price drops as housing and financial markets continue to tighten, according to Knight Frank.With the U.S. and U.K. moving more swiftly than the European Union to raise interest rates and tame inflation and home price growth, buyers from both regions may soon look to EU properties as currency play in order to take advantage of a weaker euro, Knight Frank notes.

This article originally appeared on Mansion Global.

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The European Union Has Outpaced the U.K. in Home Price Growth Since Brexit Vote - Barron's

The Georgian Government is "mobilised to meet all conditions" set by the European Union for granting member candidate status to Georgia in a timely manner, in order to obtain the status on time, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a briefing at the Government Administration on Friday.

"[W]e heard the assessments, promises and statements made by the European leaders that as soon as we deliver on the priorities defined by them, we will be granted a candidacy status. Of course, it gives us an additional incentive to deliver all those conditions, all those priorities, that were defined by the EU in the most efficient manner. We stand ready for this", the PM said.

Garibashvili emphasised his Government had additional motivation to fulfil the conditions set by the EU "in the shortest possible time", adding the European perspective had been granted to Georgia deservedly, and Europe had opened the door to the country.

It was a truly historic day. Georgia received what we deserved. It is a merit-based achievement. The European perspective has been granted to Georgia deservedly. You saw that it was publicly and openly worded that Europe was opening its doors wide to our country in a real sense [with the decision]. It is a recognition of the aspiration of our people towards European ideals. It is a recognition of our loyalty towards them. It is a recognition of our daring, principled position, our struggle and of the work delivered by our government during these 10 years, Garibasvhili said.

He also congratulated Ukraine and Moldova on their recognition by the EU with the membership candidate status, wishing the two partner states success and prosperity and highlighting the ongoing heaviest war in Ukraine and the related difficult situation in Moldova.

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PM: Gov't "mobilised to meet all conditions" set by European Union for membership candidate status - Agenda.ge

At an annual economic forum in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin sought to justify the invasion of Ukraine and portray Russia as a constructive force in the world. But the destruction and death continued, Moscow faced accusations of exacerbating world hunger, and Ukraine took a step toward joining the European Union.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Behind The Scenes

St. Petersburg is Putins hometown, and its also the site of some of his most assiduous image-making -- at once stage, set, and prop for events he has used, over nearly 23 years as president or prime minister, to showcase Russia and his rule.

The columns, churches, and canals of the city at the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea, and its history as Tsar Peter the Greats window on the West, make a beautiful backdrop for Putins efforts to portray Russia as a modern country that is open for business and as a power that deserves a say, or even sway, in European and global affairs.

But over the years, the showcase events have been marred by what is not on show, by what is happening offstage, behind the scenes.

In May 2003, Putin hosted foreign leaders at tricentennial celebrations that aimed, an Associated Press reporter wrote at the time, to promote Russia as a cornerstone of the international community and restore St. Petersburg's glory after decades of Soviet-era decline.

But behind the freshly painted facades, another Russia lurked: Invisible from the street, the courtyards of the citys apartment buildings remained a mess, and squalor persisted in the communal apartments in the stately old structures downtown and in the dilapidated Soviet-era housing projects further out.

Meanwhile, Putins Russia was still in an early stage of development. For example, this was five months before the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose imprisonment was one of the most prominent symbols of Putins rule. It was about nine months before a brutal hate crime that showed an ugly side of the country: the fatal stabbing of Khursheda Sultanova, a 9-year-old girl of Tajik ethnicity, in one of the courtyards of St. Petersburg. And it was a more than a year before Putin, after suicide bombers brought down two passenger jets and militants staged a deadly attack on a school in the southern town of Beslan, curtailed civil rights and political pluralism in what would turn out to be a step in a clampdown that has continued -- and escalated, in many ways -- to this day.

Ten years later, in September 2013, Putin hosted a Group of 20 (G20) summit at an Imperial-era palace outside St. Petersburg.

Ten Years After

The tenor of ties with the West was much changed from 2003: U.S. President Barack Obamas reset with Moscow had soured amid a growing number of disputes over issues including NATO strikes on Libya in 2011, the war in Syria, and the further curtailment of rights and democracy in Russia.

Putin, who publicly accused the United States of inciting a wave of street protests among Russians angry over evidence of election fraud and dismayed at his return to the presidency, was back in the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister.

Putins government was pursuing charges against alleged participants in a protest at which police clashed with protesters on Moscows Bolotnaya Square on the eve of his inauguration in May 2012 -- a wave of prosecutions that set the stage for the mounting clampdown that has marked Putins last two terms.

Opposition politician Aleksei Navalny had been sentenced to five years in prison that July after a politically charged trial, but the sentence was suspended hours later, enabling him to run in the Moscow mayoral election in September, a few days after the G20 summit.

Over the years, meanwhile, the main event Putin has used to court investment and portray Russia as a leading player in the world economy and the global community has been the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which he has attended every year since 2005.

He did so again last week, lashing out repeatedly at the United States and the European Union in his address on June 17 and asserting that Russia is building a new world order, but hitting some of the same notes he has at past editions of the event -- this time courting countries outside the West.

Russias first principle is openness, he claimed, adding that it will never follow the road of self-isolation and, on the contrary, is expanding cooperation with all those who are interested in it, who want to work with us, and will continue to do so.

This time, the other Russia that remained off stage, behind the curtain, went far beyond the courtyards of St. Petersburg: It extended across the country, where the state stepped up its clampdown on civil society, independent media, and all forms of dissent in 2020 and has ramped it up further since Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine four months ago.

Navalny, arrested upon his return to Russia in January 2021 following treatment abroad for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin, is now serving a nine-year sentence on what he calls absurd, politically motivated charges, and was moved this month to a high-security penitentiary where his relatives and supporters fear for his life.

Altered States

The war on Ukraine has swiftly changed Russia, resulting in unprecedented Western sanctions and the withdrawal of countless companies such as McDonalds, Nike, and Ikea, and economic troubles that promise to be lasting and severe. Tens of thousands of Russians have left the country, fearing for their future in their isolated homeland, disgusted by the war, or both.

And, of course, the other Russia has extended to Ukraine itself, where the unprovoked invasion has killed thousands of people, forced millions from their homes -- many of them now destroyed as Moscows military has bombarded cities and towns nationwide -- and caused incalculable suffering, with more to come.

Putin mentioned the war in Ukraine in his address at the forum, but only to repeat his attempts to justify it without providing evidence to support his arguments -- and in some cases relying on outright falsehoods, such as his claim that Kyiv has been committing genocide in the eastern Donbas region.

Starting with his insistence on calling the war a special military operation to liberate the Donbas, there was a deep disconnect between Putins remarks and the reality of the devastation Russia has wreaked upon Ukraine.

Mariupol, a largely Russian-speaking Donbas city of 450,000 people before the February invasion, has been razed by Russian bombardments and street battles. Fierce fighting is now ravaging other parts of the Donbas as Russia presses to advance in the region. Some residents have been forcibly evacuated to Russia, and survivors have given numerous accounts of the horrors of the assault.

Trail Of Destruction

The same is true of other areas that have been attacked or held by Russian forces, whom Ukraine has accused of committing war crimes in various parts of the country including towns and cities around Kyiv and to the north, where the invading army left a trail of destruction and alleged atrocities as it retreated after failing to take the capital.

Russia is accused of blocking exports of grain from Ukraine, exacerbating what many call a global food crisis. A war against a country whose people Putin has claimed are one with Russians has brought Ukrainians together as never before and is likely to leave ties between the two countries in tatters for decades or more.

Ukraine, along with Moldova, was granted European Union candidate status on June 23, at an EU summit. Sweden and Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, have applied for NATO membership and may join the Western military alliance this year.

And Russians, three decades after the life-altering turmoil of the Soviet Unions collapse, face a protracted period of deep uncertainty -- economic and otherwise -- once again.

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The Week In Russia: Behind The Facade - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference after a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP hide caption

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference after a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday.

BRUSSELS The European Union's executive arm on Friday recommended making Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, a first step on what was expected to be a long road for the war-torn country to join the 27-nation bloc.

The European Commission delivered its proposal to award Ukraine candidate status after a fast-tracked analysis of answers to a questionnaire. The Ukrainian government applied for EU membership less than a week after Russia invaded the country.

"Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective," commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. "We want them to live with us, the European dream."

The leaders of the bloc's existing members are scheduled to discuss the recommendation during a summit next week in Brussels. The European Commission's endorsement, while a strong sign of solidarity with Ukraine, is likely to take years or even decades to materialize into EU membership.

Along with Ukraine, the European Commission also recommended giving neighboring Moldova EU candidate status. The commission also reviewed Georgia's application but said the Caucasus nation first needs to fulfill a number of conditions.

Adding new members requires unanimous approval from all existing EU member nations. They have expressed differing views on how quickly to add Ukraine to their ranks. Ukraine's bid received a boost when the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania visited the country Thursday and vowed to back its candidacy.

To be admitted, potential newcomers need to demonstrate that they meet EU standards on democratic principles and they must absorb about 80,000 pages of rules covering everything from trade and immigration to fertilizer and the rule of law.

Before Russia's war in Ukraine, the European Commission repeatedly expressed concern in recent years about corruption in Ukraine and the need for deep political and economic reforms.

"Yes, Ukraine deserves a European perspective. It should be welcomed as a candidate country, on the understanding that important work remains to be done," von der Leyen said Friday. "The entire process is merits-based. It goes by the book and therefore, progress depends entirely on Ukraine."

Ukraine currently has has an association agreement with the EU, which is aimed at opening Ukraine's markets and bringing it closer to Europe. It includes a far-reaching free trade pact. Von der Leyen said that due to the 2016 agreement, "Ukraine has already implemented roughly 70% of the EU rules, norms and standards."

"It is taking part in many important EU programs," she continued. "Ukraine is a robust parliamentary democracy. It has a well-functioning public administration that has kept the country running even during this war."

Von der Leyen said the country should continue to make progress in the fields of rule of law and fighting corruption. She also cited the need to speed up the selection of high court judges.

Expediting Ukraine's application by declaring it an official candidate would challenge the EU's normal playbook for adding members. The degree to which Ukraine's request for a fast-track accession represents a change in the EU's standard operating procedure is evident from the experiences of other aspiring members.

Turkey, for example, applied for membership in 1987, received candidate status in 1999, and had to wait until 2005 to start talks for actual entry. Six so-called Western Balkan countries Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo have been in the EU waiting line for decades, and only Serbia and Montenegro have the candidate status that was proposed for Ukraine.

At their June 23 summit, EU heads of state and government therefore face a delicate balancing act: signaling to Ukraine that the door is ajar while reassuring other aspiring members and some of the bloc's own citizens that they aren't showing favoritism to Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday he was grateful to the European Commission's recommendation to put his country and Moldova on the membership path. He called it "the first step on the E.U. membership path that'll certainly bring our victory closer."

Zelenskyy added that he "expected a positive result" from the EU summit in Brussels.

Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy said it was in all of Europe's interest to see that Moscow is defeated in his country.

Speaking at an annual discussion forum in North Macedonia, Zelenskyy said that Russian's actions even before the war have "challenged every nation on the continent, every region of Europe."

"Today, there is not a single country left in Europe that would not have suffered from at least one of the many manifestations of Russian anti-European policies," he said.

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Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade.

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Commission recommends making Ukraine a candidate for European Union membership - NPR