German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas supports the proposal that Macedonia is allowed to open EU accession talks while the changes to the EU enlargement process which France insists upon are agreed and implemented. Macedonia made this request after France vetoed the opening of EU accession talks, citing the need to reform both the EU and the enlargement process.

The federal Government and I personally as the Minister, will strongly support the opening of accession talks with “North” Macedonia at the European Council. You can rely on Germany, Maas said in Skopje, after meeting with Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov.

The social-democratic German politician added that the French request to amend the enlargement process must not be used as an excuse to block the accession talks. Maas said that France still hasn’t given Germany a finished proposal of what changes it wants to see in the enlargement process.

We are prepared to talk about reforms to the process, but we don’t want that to be a pre-condition to before opening the accession talks. We believe that the procedure with “North” Macedonia is so well advanced that we can now finally make a decision to open the accession talks, Maas added.

Maas also met with President Stevo Pendarovski and outgoing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.