EU leaders attend Western Balkans meeting on eve of major summit

European Union leaders will meet with their counterparts from the Western Balkans region on Wednesday evening as they gather in Brussels for a high-stakes summit that will include crunch talks on funding for Ukraine.

The leaders from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo are expected in Brussels for the talks.

The EU aims to forge closer ties with all six countries and encourage them to undertake further reforms, ultimately leading to their accession to the EU.

Front-runner to join the bloc is Montenegro, which, according to a recent analysis by the European Commission, is the furthest along the membership process and is expected to conclude accession negotiations by the end of 2026 if it maintains its current pace of reforms.

Albania could be ready to conclude negotiations by the end of 2027, the commission said.

Turning to internal matters on Thursday, EU leaders will discuss whether Russian central bank assets frozen in the bloc can be made available to Ukraine as a reparation loans.

Negotiations on the loan could continue into Friday as Belgium, where the lion's share of the around €210 billion ($247.4 billion) assets are held, has been opposed to the plan.

On the sidelines of the summit, EU countries could also reach an agreement to sign the free trade agreement with the four Latin American Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.