Slovene PM suggests incentive stepping stones for W. Balkan countries on path to EU

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union should focus on rewarding countries of the Western Balkans for progress on the road to accession in order to create incentives for them to keep pursuing a distant and challenging goal, Slovenia's Prime Minister said.

Robert Golob, who was in Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, gave the example of energy, suggesting that North Macedonia could be allowed to participate in Europe-wide energy projects as soon as it had fully implemented all EU energy rules.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, writing by Thomas Escritt, editing by Kirsti Knolle)