European Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said that both Macedonia and Albania are prepared to open EU accession talks.

In the coming months we will work on three tracks: proposal to drive EU enlargement forward to make negotiations more credible, predictable, political and dynamic; opening of accession talks with “North” Macedonia and Albania and support for economic development of the Western Balkans. We stand by proposal to open accession talks with “North” Macedonia. Impressive progress on difficult reforms was made and that is why I put forward a performance reward of 50 million EUR, Varhelyi said.

He called on Macedonia to adopt the law on public prosecutors, an issue which has been complicated with the unprecedented meltdown of the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

The Commissioner met with with the interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski and other officials, and promised that Balkan enlargement will be a priority for the EU. Macedonia and Albania were denied the opening of accession talks in October, due to objections coming mostly from France and the Netherlands.