President Stevo Pendarovski called on the European Union to approve the opening of accession talks with Macedonia and announced he will also travel to Brussels to ask that the country is not shunned to the side after the humiliating name change.

Prime Minister Zaev recently visited Brussels for meetings with outgoing EU officials Juncker and Hahn, and is due to meet German Chancellor Merkel this week, while his ministers went to Paris. France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and now even Germany are voicing reservations about the accession talks, and the conclusions of the coming European Council do not contain a recommendation to open the talks.

Our message to the EU is clear. We made historic steps in the past two years because we wanted to show that politics in our region can go above the practices of the past, above fights and divisions. The Republic of North Macedonia did its part, Pendarovski said in an interview.

He also tried to put a positive spin on the shocking rejection, by insisting that, if not in the promised June term, the accession talks will probably begin later this year.