Macedonia, as well as other countries in the Western Balkans, will take part in the platform for joint purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen, which was agreed yesterday by the EU and the United States.

According to the government press service, this is a result of the policy of solidarity in these times of challenges in which the common strategy gives results, say the conclusions of the European Council. 

Thanks to this strategy for addressing the consequences of the war and the energy crisis, Macedonia is becoming part of this EU platform for joint purchase of liquefied natural gas from the United States to partially get rid of its dependence on Russian gas, reads the statement.

The European Council in Brussels adopted these conclusions yesterday after a meeting of EU leaders with US President Joe Biden, where once again Russia’s military aggression on Ukraine was assessed as a gross violation of international law that caused huge civilian casualties and mass humanitarian refugee crisis.

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski thanked the EU for making a decision during the energy crisis for Macedonia to become part of the Platform for joint purchase of liquefied natural gas.

As Kovacevski wrote on Facebook, in this time full of challenges, the joint strategy “together we are stronger” gives results.

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani also told a news briefing that the European Council had decided to jointly purchase gas and other energy sources on behalf of EU member states in order to reduce its dependence on gas and oil from Russia.

The countries of the Western Balkans, he noted, are for the first time included equally in this new mechanism. According to him, this means that as long as the country needs gas and oil, the European Commission will purchase it on our behalf.

The supply of natural gas was the main topic of the meeting of the Macedonian-Bulgarian working group, which took place yesterday in Skopje. The extension of the interconnector Petric – Strumica to TPP Negotino was discussed by revising the existing study, as a long-term solution for gas supply in the country. According to Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi, another long-term solution is our participation in the Alexandropoulos terminal.