German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she supports the opening of EU accession talks with Macedonia, even with French objections that the Union should be deepened and reformed before any future enlargement.

During the press conference at the Western Balkan summit in Poznan, Merkel agreed that the EU should be reformed, but said that enlargement talks could go in side by side with the reforms, which is broadly what Zoran Zaev is asking for.

French President Emmanuel Macron was a no – show in Poznan, but Zaev met with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to ask for opening of accession talks in October. Zaev insisted that Macedonia met all requirements and that his massive cave on the name issue should be rewarded. He repeated this threat that a failure to open accession talks would increase nationalism in the region, including with the likely election of the conservative New Democracy in Greece this Sunday.

For the domestic public, Zaev presented a haul of 43 million EUR in grants for three infrastructure projects which he said was agreed in Poznan, most of which goes to the building of a short highway link from Skopje to Kosovo.