7 hours agoZaev: Skopje, Tirana not split on road to EU
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Northern Macedonia and Albania must continue together the path of European integration, or at the same time begin negotiations for EU membership, North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said after meeting in Brussels with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyeen. Zaev, in a statement for MIA news agency, [...]
Zaev, in a statement to MIA news agency, said the division of Albania and Northern Macedonia is not in anyone's interest.
As MIA broadcast, Zaev told the EC president that <x0identity and language should not be the subject of negotiations with the EU under any circumstance”.
It's in our interest to walk together. Albania's interest is to go together, help each other together during this whole process... We deserve to start negotiations like nobody else. Sixteen years are with candidate state status, three years after the Prespa Agreement, a hundred days after completed reforms. These, in 2020, were fully confirmed by the 27 Union member states. We continue to strengthen the rule of law, we see it every day in the fight against crime and corruption, which is not easy for any government in the world, is not even for us, but is the European future”, Zaev said.
Last week, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Warhely has not ruled out the possibility of Albania being separated from Northern Macedonia, or the first to begin EU membership talks, although senior European officials have sometimes stressed that the two states should open membership talks in the bloc.
European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told MIA agency that at the meeting with Prime Minister Zaev, EC President von der Layen reiterated her support for starting negotiations with northern Macedonia.
For this, the EU has given the green light more than a year ago, but negotiations have been unable to start because of Bulgaria's veto.
It reaffirmed its support for opening negotiations with Northern Macedonia and welcomed reforms in northern Macedonia under the membership process and encouraged them to continue with reforms”, Mamer said.
According to him, the president of the European Commission encouraged Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia to resolve disputes in order to unblock the integration process.
In November of last year, Sofia has used vetous towards northern Macedonia, conditioning it on resolving differences involving Macedonian language and identity.
Sofia does not contest Macedonian identity, but demands from Skopje to accept that language and identity have <x0 Bulgarian”s.
