On Friday 16 February, European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn came across as optimistic as regards a swift resolution of the 'Macedonia' name issue between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece.
Negotiations between the two parties have been stepped up in recent months. When questioned about resolving this issue during the six-month Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council, Hahn said he was "very confident about this idea", when he arrived for the last session of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Sofia, to which EU candidate countries (including FYROM) were also invited. The six-month Bulgarian Presidency comes to an end on 30 June.
Without giving a date, Bulgaria's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva said at the end of the informal meeting that she was "confident that, in the near future" a solution could be found, and she added that this would give "new momentum" to Skopje's accession to the EU and NATO. She also thought it was "very likely" that the Europeans could decide to begin accession negotiations with FYROM and also with Albania at the June European Council.
While the discussions between Skopje and Athens are taking place under the auspices of the UN, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the EU was "ready to support the dialogue in all ways possible".
Serbia-Kosovo agreement before end of 2019?
Mogherini was optimistic as to a "legally binding" agreement on the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo. "I am realistically optimistic that this can bring results by the end of our mandate, at the end of 2019", she said. She also said that the two presidents had "entered into discussions on a legally binding agreement which would fully address the issue of the normalisation of relations".
Still as regards Kosovo, Mogherini hailed the agreement between the presidents of Kosovo and Montenegro on the agreement on the demarcation of the border. "We are ready to support the full implementation of this agreement", she added. In a joint statement, the two presidents called on the Kosovar Parliament to ratify the agreement. This agreement is one of the conditions for Kosovo to be able to benefit from the liberalisation of visas. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)