At a bilateral meeting on Thursday with Bulgarian Member of European Parliament (MEP) Macedonia Rapporteur, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bojan Maricic said cooperation and mutual respect as models for success are equally important for both EU member states and countries on their way to EU membership.

Mutual respect and esteem built on European values is the only model for success for current and future generations. We know that there will always be factors on both sides of the border, and outside those frameworks, that want incidents, nationalism, conflicts and a return to the past, Maricic said at the meeting.

As SEA informed, the Deputy Prime Minister together with MEP Kyuchyuk confirmed that “despite all the provocations and attempts to disrupt good relations, both of them, together with the citizens, want and strongly advocate for cooperation and good neighborliness that bring prosperity to both countries and both peoples and that they believe that option is both more numerous and stronger and that it will certainly prevail in this situation.”

As part of the official visit to Brussels in the European Parliament, Maricic also met with MEPs Irena Joveva and David McAllister, and discussed the course of the screening process, the reform plan and obligations and tasks that we have until the end of this year.

At the meeting with McAllister, it was emphasized that now Macedonia must focus on reforms and political consensus because they are the guarantors of rapid progress on the way to the EU. Also, McAllister said that Europe is facing security challenges and therefore it is important that the region remains stable and on the European path.

Membership in the EU must remain our foreign policy priority, as well as to implement the necessary reforms so that we can fulfill our goal and vision, that 2030 be the year of membership in the EU, pointed out Maricic.

The Deputy Prime Minister also spoke with the MEP Irena Joveva, who confirmed to him the positive energy for Macedonia and the support of the MEPs and the European Parliament for the negotiations with the EU.

Opening a political dialogue in the Parliament and joint cooperation regarding European integration will mean Macedonia’s entry into the next phase of the process. Macedonia has the capacity, and we are convinced that now progress and tangible results are necessary for implementing the reform plan and key areas such as the rule of law, the judiciary, and the fight against corruption, pointed out Maricic.