For us, full membership of Macedonia, Albania and all countries of the region, is a strategic interest. This is our closest neighborhood, in political, cultural and economic terms. We have over half a million Austrian citizens with family background in the Western Balkans, so there’s a very strong human bond linking us together, Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg told a press conference in Skopje on Saturday.

Schallenberg said that Austria was proud to be able to be with the Balkans in the European Commission and to be able to help the region in the mechanism of distribution of vaccines with the first “Pfizer” shipment, because, as he pointed out, that was what mentioned “in case of need, you can always count on your EU partners”.

Our goal and the goal of the next presidency is to keep you clear on the road to the EU. Of course, European unification is not complete until all Western Balkan countries become EU members. We all know that there are important bilateral issues. We believe that bilateral issues should not block the accession process, but I think we all agree that we have to deal with the issues and therefore we fully support the efforts of the Portuguese presidency, together with the ministers here and in Sofia, and fully support the efforts of the next Slovenian presidency to be held in the fall, a very important summit for the Western Balkans, Schallenberg said.

He added that no more time should be wasted and said that they should try not to lose 2021 completely.