Germany will do everything in its power to start Macedonia’s EU accession talks the German presidency by the end of the year, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in the address at a ceremony in Berlin where the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2020 Human Rights Award was awarded to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Intensive talks are under way to hold the first intergovernmental conference during Germany’s EU presidency. We will continue to work with you as in the past days because that is our goal publicly proclaimed during our presidency. Since March, we are waiting for the formal negotiations to finally begin and we hope to hold the first intergovernmental conference by the end of the year, Maas said.

He stressed that EU’s credibility in the region will depend on that.

It will be crucial in the coming days to find a solution to the questions for which we still do not have answers. We are serious about that and we want to specifically achieve these goals. We are serious when we say that the Western Balkans belong to the EU and we want to succeed in that. We will do everything in our power to support you on that path, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.