English
Macedonia is curious to find out more about the new proposal from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who proposed gradual integration of the Balkan countries into the EU, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski today.
We’ve been hearing about these new ideas and concepts for a while, and I won’t comment until it’s made official Chancellor Merz announced such a development during the Berlin Process meeting in London last year, when I said that there are new suggestions and new possibilities in the region. At the moment I can say that we are curious to find out more about the idea. I expect this will happen at the Tivat summit on 4th and 5th June which I will be attending, said Prime Minister Mickoski.
The Prime Minister added that he will also discuss Macedonia’s stalled EU integration with European Council President Antonio Costa, who will visit Macedonia ahead of the Tivat summit.
We have exceptionally friendly relations with President Costa and he has always been constructive in finding a solution to this artificial bilateral issue that one EU member-state has with Macedonia. I hope that we will continue in the same direction in the future, during our bilateral meeting and working dinner here, and that we will exchange more ideas on how we can overcome this obstacle, the Prime Minister added.
Mickoski said that it would be uncultured for Macedonia to change its positions on the dispute overnight, since the preconditions that we expect to see have not been met yet. Macedonia demands guarantees from the EU that accepting the current Bulgarian demand will not lead to additional new nationalist disputes and issues being raised.