Balkans
EU-Western Balkans summit set for 25 November in Brussels, a day before the Special European Council
The Council of the EU has announced that EU and Western Balkans leaders will meet in Brussels on 25 November, ahead of a Special European Council on 26 and 27 November.
The European Union has fixed the dates of the next two big diplomatic gatherings in Brussels. An EU-Western Balkans summit will take place on 25 November 2026, the day before a Special European Council on 26 and 27 November, the Council of the EU announced on 23 October.
Western Balkans first, then the leaders’ meeting
According to the Council, EU and Western Balkans leaders will meet in Brussels on 25 November, and the summit is meant to “highlight the strategic importance” of relations between the Union and the region. A separate media advisory on accreditation says the Special European Council will be held on 26 and 27 November in the Europa building in Brussels and will be preceded by the Western Balkans summit.
The Council’s texts quoted here do not set out the agenda of either meeting, and none is given in the announcement. The enlargement file is nevertheless the one Geopolitiki followed most recently: in our report on the Commission’s enlargement announcement, Montenegro had closed 21 of 33 negotiating chapters and Albania 4.
The next days in Brussels
Before the November meetings, the Council’s calendar already contains an EU-Canada summit on 29 and 30 October 2026. The Council has said that a press briefing on that summit will be held on Tuesday 27 October at 10:30. It has also published the weekly schedule of European Council President Antonio Costa for 26 October to 1 November, and a forward look at the Council’s meetings between 26 October and 8 November, which includes an Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 26 and 27 October.
Costa was in Budapest on 23 October, where he addressed the Hungarian National Assembly on the 70th anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
Why the date matters
The Council itself describes the aim of the 25 November summit only as underlining the strategic importance of the EU-Western Balkans relationship. Accession negotiations with Montenegro and Albania, mentioned above, are the most concrete part of that relationship today; the Council has not said whether they will feature on the agenda.
