The European political community is no substitute for the enlargement process, nor for the accession process of your country. Your path to the EU is already very clear, explained in a very detailed way and you are already on that path where all the steps are very well established. The European political community and the meeting that will be held tomorrow is a way in which the EU gives recognition and should contribute to the joint handling of important current challenges, the head of the EU Delegation in the country, David Geer said today in Kavadarci.

Answering a question from MIA, European Ambassador Geer clarified that whenever the EU faces big and important issues such as Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the issue related to energy, the environment and several other issues that are of great importance, then the Union expands the circle of participants in its meetings in order to better address those issues.

The meeting of the European Political Community is designed to bring together several partners, in this case, partners from the Western Balkans, the EU and other partners that are not part of the EU, in order to be able to discuss issues of great importance. So that we can address together all the challenges we face. And in this case, not only our partners from the Western Balkans will participate in this meeting, but also from Great Britain and Switzerland, which are not part of the accession process of EU enlargement, all in order to be able to discuss these issues together. So – yes, I think that the holding of the EPZ meeting is a positive development that will contribute to the development and common coping with challenges and is not a substitute for the EU, emphasizes the European ambassador.

Asked how many years we are away from the EU, given the long wait at the doors of the Union and the conditions imposed by neighboring Bulgaria, Ambassador Geer says that the path to EU membership is based on the implementation of reforms that include various sectors, starting from agriculture, trade, governance of law and order and other reforms and the sooner they are implemented, the sooner EU membership will be possible.