Macron: EU shouldn’t accept any new member countries until the 28-nation bloc is more deeply integrated

French President Emmanuel Macron says the European Union shouldn’t accept any new member countries until the 28-nation bloc is more deeply integrated and has undergone thorough reform.

Macron has told EU lawmakers that he wants to anchor countries of the Western Balkans to the European project, but that now isn’t the time to allow any to join.

He said: “I will only support an enlargement when there is first a deepening and a reform of our Europe.”

Macron added: “I don’t want a Balkans that turns toward Turkey or Russia, but I don’t want a Europe that, functioning with difficulty at 28 and tomorrow as 27, would decide that we can continue to gallop off, to be tomorrow 30 or 32, with the same rules.”

EU and Balkans leaders meet next month to discuss the volatile region’s future, but the 28-nation bloc is unlikely to invite any country in the region to join.