SKOPJE (North Macedonia), June 13 (SeeNews) –The German parliament will decide whether to open EU accession talks with North Macedonia in September, the government in Skopje said on Thursday citing German chancellor Angela Merkel.
North Macedonia has delivered the expected results and Berlin has a very positive view of this fact, the government said in a press release, after prime minister Zoran Zaev met with Merkel in Berlin.
The president of the European Council Donald Tusk said on Wednesday that reaching consensus among 28 EU member states when to open accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania might take more time than he would like.
“I personally believe that there can only be one decision: to launch the negotiations in line with the European Commission's recommendations, both with North Macedonia and Albania. The question today is, not if, but when,” Tusk said in a press release, following a meeting with North Macedonia's president Stevo Pendarovski in Brussels.
Tusk also said that over the last two years, North Macedonia has delivered all the right political signals that the EU was expecting from the candidate countries.
“To keep in line with my role as President of the European Council, I do not want to prejudge the EU's decisions. You have done everything that was expected of you. But I want to be honest with you: not all member states are prepared to make the decision on opening negotiations in the coming days,” Tusk noted.
On Tuesday, 13 European Union member states callеd for the launch of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia later this month.
The foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland and the Slovak Republic reiterated their continued support for the Western Balkans on their European path in a joint statement.
The Council is expected to decide whether to open accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia in June.
North Macedonia is a EU candidate country since 2005 and Albania applied to join the bloc in 2014.