North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski called on Monday 14 March for all EU member states to give Skopje a date for its first intergovernmental conference to open accession negotiations.
Speaking to the media in Skopje, the Prime Minister said it was important for his country to have “a crystal-clear EU perspective”.
“I cannot promise a date, I can promise a will. Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, replied the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, while stressing the need to start negotiations as soon as possible. The High Representative explained that the Western Balkans region was “a strategic priority” for the EU and that he was committed to making the European perspective a reality.
He said that work on rule of law reforms, the fight against corruption and organised crime, the digital transition and the green agenda would ensure rapid progress when the negotiations were launched.
Bulgaria is blocking the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia over a bilateral dispute, but talks between the two governments are under way. Borrell called on both sides to find a mutually acceptable solution quickly.
Noting that the status quo was not beneficial for anyone, the North Macedonian Prime Minister highlighted that the Balkan countries were closely linked, that progress in one was an incentive for the others and that, conversely, a deadlock in the accession negotiations with North Macedonia was felt throughout the region. “Leaving a dual strategic gap in our part of Europe is not an option. The rapid integration of North Macedonia into the region will ensure the stability and development of Europe”, he explained.
Kovačevski said that in the context of the war in Ukraine, the EU and all Member States must “act strategically and courageously and call for the integration of the Western Balkans into the EU”. Borrell hoped that the war in Ukraine would be a “wake-up call for Europe, to reinvigorate the enlargement process to anchor the Western Balkans firmly to the EU”.
According to the Prime Minister, the war in Ukraine poses the risk of an increase in the influence of third parties in the Western Balkans region, which everyone should be very alert to and prepared for.
Borrell announced that the EU was considering how to help the Western Balkan countries deal with the consequences of the war in Ukraine and increase their resilience. He announced that he would make proposals to strengthen cooperation in the cyber field and in the fight against disinformation. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)