US Ambassador Kate Byrnes met with Zoran Zaev today and sent out a message of encouragement as Macedonia remains stuck in its EU accession bid, held back by a Bulgarian blockade.

At a meeting with Zoran Zaev I emphasized that we value our bilateral partnership with North Macedonia and want to see EU accession talks as quickly as possible. We see a positive way forward and are pleased with the ongoing conversation by both Bulgaria emoji and Macedonia emoji to move Macedonia emoji’s EU accession forward, the Ambassador tweeted.

The Zaev regime is now facing the threat of seeing Albania advance, while Macedonia remaining stuck, which would be a major foreign policy defeat for its promise that the doors to the EU will be wide open after the imposed name change. Bulgaria currently does not have a political Government and the odds of progress before the next European Council are slim.

The Zaev Government issued a statement after the meeting, saying that Ambassador Byrnes expressed the support of the US for further progress in NATO and in EU integrations for Macedonia. “We mutually agreed that it is time to continue to EU expansion, which, along with the NATO perspective, will encourage the entire Western Balkans to move toward developing democratic values, Zaev’s office said in its statement.

Zaev’s office added that the Ambassador welcomed the determination of the Government to successfully deal with crime and corruption. This comes at a time when Zaev is again facing multiple major corruption scandals, that point directly to him and close members of his family, and include racketeering, extortion of companies who won public contracts and marijuana smuggling.