European Union ministers adopted conclusions on the enlargement in a session on Tuesday but without recommendation for the opening of the accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina, or granting candidate status for Georgia, according to Radio Free Europe.

Discussion and potential decision on this matter is left to the European Council, which is meeting later this week, on December 14-15.

This week is marked as the most crucial in last 20 years when it comes to EU enlargement.

According to procedures, the ministers harmonise their stances on a matter and decisions are passed formally by the heads of governments i.e. European Council.

RFE reports that Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wording of the decision on this country remains the biggest “unknown.”

Namely, the European Commission recommended the opening of the accession talks back in November but once the country meets membership criteria.

Unlike Bosnia, Ukraine and Moldova received a clear positive recommendation.

Reportedly, in the first drafts of the conclusions, the decision on Bosnia was also conditional, where the country was expected to meet all the conditions. On the other hand, the sentences referring to Ukraine and Moldova contained a clear recommendation for the leaders to approve the opening of the accession talks.

According to RFE, two latest drafts, one of which was agreed on the night between December 11 and 12, removed the recommendations for all three countries and stated that these issues would be on agenda of the upcoming EU summit.

A poll that was recently conducted in six EU member states showed that the EU citizens are generally open to the idea of Ukraine joining the EU but had a rather cool response to the prospect of the Western Balkans joining the bloc, The Guardian reported.

The survey showed strong opposition to Turkey joining the EU, while les than 30% support the accession of the Western Balkan countries, Moldova and Georgia.

Reportedly, the support was weakest for Kosovo (20% for, 37% against), followed by Albania (24%for, 35% against), Serbia (25% for, 35% against) and Georgia (25% for, 31% against), while the opinions were more evenly divided on North Macedonia (26% for, 27% against) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (28% for, 29% against).

The polling was conducted for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in six member states – Austria, France, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Romania.