EU membership process in Western Balkans

(BELGRADE) - Balkans leaders are exepcted to be pushed to step up reforms that will speed up their path to membership of the European Union during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tour of the region. Here is the status of Balkan countries aiming to join the 28-member bloc.

CROATIA

In December 2011, Croatia signed an EU accession treaty which was approved in a popular referendum a month later. Once ratified by each EU country, Croatia will become the 28th member state in July 2013.

MONTENEGRO

Montenegro obtained candidate status in December 2010. In June 2012, EU foreign ministers launched accession talks, urging the Balkan nation to do more against corruption and organised crime in order to speed up its integration into the 27-bloc.

MACEDONIA

Macedonia obtained candidate status in 2005, but accession talks were yet to start due to a name-dispute with Greece, ongoing since the former Yugoslav republic gained independence in 1991.

SERBIA

Serbia was given a candidate status in March and hopes to obtain a date to start accession talks with Brussels, on condition that Belgrade and Pristina re-start a stalled EU-sponsored dialogue.

ALBANIA

Albania has still to obtain candidate status. Tirana first applied in 2009, but Brussels rejected to give Albania the status, demanding further political, economic and judicial reforms in the former communist country.

BOSNIA

Bosnia is the only Western Balkan country that has yet to apply for EU candidate status, but it has to revise its Constitution first as the European Court for Human Rights has branded it discriminatory towards Jewish and Roma communities. The changes were to be applied by November 30.

KOSOVO:

Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, could take a first step towards joining the European Union in the first half of 2013, with confirmed progress in the rule of law, protection of minorities and other political reforms.