The European Union is wrapping up its expansion in the Balkans. The small republic of Macedonia was told it was ready to start membership talks in a European Commission assessment released October 14.

This is welcome news in Macedonia, where more than 90 percent of the people support their country’s efforts to integrate with Europe, according to a recent survey by the International Republican Institute.

“We are now able to recommend the opening of accession negotiations with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters at a news conference in Brussels.

This elevates Macedonia’s status in EU relations to the same level as Croatia and Turkey.

Croatia, also a Balkan nation, is “nearing the finishing line” for its 2011 goal of joining the EU, according to Rehn. Croatia’s bid has always been strongly supported by Germany due to strong historical ties between the two countries. Croatia, once ruled by a pro-Nazi regime, still strongly identifies with the German nation.

Five other Balkan states want to join the EU: Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. Rehn said Bosnia and Herzegovina is of “paramount importance for the region and for the European Union” and should consider applying as soon as it “can stand on its own feet.”

The Balkan nations may be small, but as Rehn said, they are of strategic importance to the EU, especially to Germany.

It was Germany’s recognition of Croatia and Slovenia in December 1991 that started a chain reaction which broke Yugoslavia into all the pieces that exist today.

The Trumpet has written before that the German-led EU sees the Balkan Peninsula as strategically important for its imperialistic aims. In 2003, then-European Commission President Romano Prodi said that “in the long run, Balkans belong strictly to the EU”—to make possible “an EU policy for the Mediterranean area.”

Apart from Croatia, the Balkan states do have some internal issues to resolve before they will be allowed in the EU. However, with the kind of rhetoric coming out of the EU Commission, we can expect the rest of the Balkan states to fall under EU control, if not outright membership.

For detailed information on what Bible prophecy indicates will happen in the Balkans, and Germany’s future goals for the region, read our free booklet The Rising Beast.