President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) looks at the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (R) in Berlin, Germany, on May 28, 2025. (Emmanuele Contini / NurPhoto / Getty Images)A number of EU countries, including Austria and Greece, are holding up progress on Ukraine's membership process by insisting that countries in the Western Balkans not be overlooked and left at the back of the line.This objection comes on top of Hungary stalling the opening of Ukraine's accession talks over the rights of Ukraine's ethnic Hungarian minority, Poland flagging issues over agriculture and the trucking industry, and Ukraine's parliament slow-walking the passing of required reforms."The same rules and conditions must apply to all candidates. Here we always have this special focus on the countries of the West Balkans," Austria's Europe Minister Claudia Bauer told journalists at a ministerial meeting in Brussels on May 26."For some, there is an overtaking track, with which some can already have a foot in the European Union, while others have to work for decades on membership," Bauer said.And an EU diplomatic source told the Kyiv Independent that while Greece "supports the accession process of Ukraine and Moldova … it is essential that progress in their accession paths does not come at the expense of the Western Balkans, whose European perspective has been clearly recognized since the Thessaloniki Agenda of 2003."Since that 2003 meeting, when the EU formally recognized that the countries of the Western Balkans have a future in the EU, only Slovenia (2004) and Croatia (2013) have successfully joined the bloc.Montenegro and Albania are respectively next in line, with Montenegro expected to be the next country to join the EU, and Albania having passed a key milestone towards membership on May 26.