Prime Minister Marjan Šarec voiced Slovenia’s strong advocacy for North Macedonia to get a date for the launch of EU accession talks in June, as he met his counterpart Zoran Zaev on Tuesday. The pair also discussed efforts to boost bilateral trade to EUR 500 million.
Addressing a joint press conference after talks, Šarec described Zaev’s official visit to Slovenia as very important, noting that North Macedonia was at a crossroads. Zaev thanked Šarec for Slovenia’s support in his country’s bid to join the EU, and asked him for further support, something that Šarec assured him of. The Slovenian prime minister said that the European Commission should acknowledge North Macedonia’s “great progress” on this path.
Šarec noted in particular the Prespa Agreement, the treaty reached in June 2018 between North Macedonia and Greece to resolve the long-running name dispute and end the blockade of North Macedonia’s bid to join NATO and the EU. Šarec lauded the agreement as a historic moment, “a great action demonstrating the great political wisdom of the two prime ministers”, Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras.
The authorities in Skopje made that step in order to meet the conditions and to start accession talks with the EU, Šarec said, adding that Slovenia “is a strong supporter of this process as early as June”.
He argued that integrating the Western Balkans into the EU, “in particular North Macedonia, which has made enormous progress”, was important for the development of the region and the entire EU.
Thanking Sarec and Slovenia for its support, Zaev said that after 14 years of being a candidate for membership, the time has come for negotiations to be launched with his country, that he is aware that that process will last for years, but negotiations are an important opportunity that will enable progress for Macedonian society.
In a talk at the Institute for Balkan and Middle East Studies in Ljubljana, Zaev said that all political parties in North Macedonia and more than 75% of the population support the country’s EU membership, that they expected, now that the European Parliament elections are over, to see how the future European Commission will act and whether it will include the Western Balkans on the enlargement agenda. He added that his country hopes to become the 30th member of NATO by the end of the year.
Šarec warned that the European Commission should refrain from setting ever new conditions, because the people of North Macedonia would be disappointed unless the country gets a date to start accession talks at the EU summit in June.
Zaev thanked Slovenia for the fast ratification of the protocol on his country’s accession to NATO, which prompted other NATO members to speed up the ratification process.
Both prime ministers termed the present visit as confirmation of good political, economic and other relations between their countries, and voiced mutual interest in strengthening the ties further, in particular in business, so that trade could increase from EUR 300 million to EUR 500 million.
The potential to boost business links is seen in investment, tourism and agriculture.
On the occasion, the countries signed a memorandum on cooperation in tourism and a programme of cultural cooperation for the period until 2022. Šarec also expressed the wish for more Macedonian investments in Slovenia and said that both countries were interested in boosting agricultural cooperation. Zaev, on the other hand, said that Slovenian products enjoyed great respect in North Macedonia and that Slovenia had invested EUR 375 million in his country. On Monday, a EUR 25 million plant of battery maker Tab was launched, creating 100 jobs.
The two prime ministers said they hoped the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci respectively, will continue the dialogue on normalising relations and stabilising the wider region.
Source: STA/Slovenian Government