The EU must prove its willingness and ability to take in new members and speed up its enlargement process, leaders of the bloc have said, as they gathered with their counterparts from six western Balkan countries that hope to join soon.“The European Union has to show that it is capable of enlarging and willing to enlarge, and we want to discuss that here,” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters on Friday at the summit in Tivat, a coastal town in Montenegro.“There are a whole range of questions we must answer together, but above all it must be clear that this part of Europe belongs within the EU’s future,” Merz said. The fact no new members had joined for 13 years showed “shortcomings” in the bloc, he added.The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who attended the summit alongside Merz, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said the EU needed “to make the enlargement process faster and more credible”.Montenegro’s president, Jakov Milatović, whose country, with a population of just 630,000, is the most advanced in its EU membership quest and hopes to join the bloc by 2028, welcomed the leaders.Jakov Milatović, centre left, welcomes Gitanas Nausėda, Mette Frederiksen and Ursula von der Leyen. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesEnlargement has risen up the agenda because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Kyiv keen to join the bloc to anchor itself in Europe’s mainstream and EU officials declaring the union must expand to reduce the influence of nearby foreign powers.Since the Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine and Moldova have joined the queue of countries seeking accession, alongside the Balkan hopefuls of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.However, the process of joining is long and complex, involving years of negotiations and legal changes plus the approval of all 27 EU members at every step. Even Montenegro, which submitted its application 18 years ago, faces obstacles and many officials see its 2028 goal as ambitious.France and Germany seized on the Tivat meeting to push the idea of “gradual integration” into the bloc. “Together with Germany, we have proposed a strengthened gradual integration process,” Macron told reporters at the summit.Macron said the proposal could mean a country that aligned itself with the EU on certain criteria would be allowed to join certain bloc formats, for example, attending the European Council meetings of EU leaders.The idea of “halfway” integration is making headway. The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, and the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, recently called for faster single market and Schengen zone integration for new members in exchange for no veto rights.Senior EU and western Balkan leaders gathered for the Tivat summit on Friday. Photograph: Alexandros Michailidis/European Union/SIPA/ShutterstockThe Guardian reported last week that EU officials were considering denying new members veto rights for several years to prevent a rerun of the bloc’s experience with the former Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, who repeatedly blocked EU decisions.Merz has also suggested Ukraine could be granted a new status of “associate member” – which would allow Ukrainian officials to take part in EU summits and ministerial meetings, but not to vote in them – as an interim step towards full membership.Enlargement, said Macron, “is very important from a geopolitical point of view, because this region is also where Europe’s independence is at stake in terms of energy, security and migration routes”.The lengthy joining process has led to a significant fall in support for membership among some Balkan countries. In Serbia, which maintains close ties with Moscow, public support for membership has dropped to below 50%.Brussels has long said the six Balkan states would join together, but Montenegro and Albania are now seen as frontrunners. Officials have said there is unlikely to be big steps at the summit, with the focus on how the EU can improve people’s lives in the region.Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report