Frederic Mondoloni, the Director of Direction for Continental Europe in the French Foreign Ministry, told Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday that his country's stand was that the Western Balkans could count of the European Union membership after the bloc finished its internal reforms, the Beta news agency reported.

France refused to give the green light to the EU to start the accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.

The final word is expected from the meeting of the EU member states’ presidents and prime ministers on Thursday or Friday.

At the same time, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretary-General Majlinda Bregu said that the Western Balkans people needed an EU incentive and that the negative outcome from the meeting deciding on a date for opening the accession talks with Tirana and Skopje would not be an easy decision for the region.

She said that for the first time since the pro-European mood in the Western Balkans was measured, 56 percent of the region's population supported the European integrations, added that showed they needed encouragement.

Talking to Vucic, Mondoloni confirmed that President Emmanuel Macron remained committed to the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relations.

The two agreed that Macron's recent visit to Belgrade gave a new incentive to the relations between Serbia and France. Vucic thanked Mondoloni, former French ambassador to Serbia, for everything he did for the two country's relations while holding the post.