At the sidelines of the GLOBSEC Security Conference taking place in Bratislava Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski met his Slovak counterpart Eduard Heger.

At the meeting, the two Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction with the bilateral relations between the two countries, which have recently been further strengthened and promoted with the opening of the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Bratislava.

The two Prime Ministers stressed that the activities of the embassy will provide additional impetus for the comprehensive development of bilateral relations between the two countries, with special emphasis on economic cooperation with Slovakia and the member states of the Visegrad Group.

At the meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Heger, Prime Minister Kovacevski thanked for the continuous public representation and statements of the highest representatives of the Slovak Republic for the unequivocal support for Macedonia’s EU integration, such as the joint initiative with the Czech Republic to block the adoption of EU conclusions in relation to the enlargement process with the countries of the Western Balkans which contain unacceptable references to some historical issues.

Prime Ministers Kovacevski and Heger agreed that it was high time Macedonia and the region received a strong, clear and coherent message from all EU member states and institutions to start membership negotiations to reaffirm their European perspective.

The stalemate in the EU accession process, it was said at the meeting, poses strong security risks, and now is the time for the EU to recognize the consistent efforts of Macedonia and Albania to start accession negotiations as soon as possible without delay.