„The EU General Affairs Council adopted its conclusions on June 26 for the enlargement package of the EU Commission. Due to the significant reform progress in Macedonia and Albania, the Council is confident that EU accession negotiations with both countries can start in 2019. The European Council endorsed the conclusions on July 29.
This will allow the EU Commission to begin the preparatory work now. As a result, a decision of the Council can actually start in 2019.
I would especially like to congratulate you, Prime Minister Zaev, with all my heart. The congratulations go, of course, to your entire Cabinet and to all the citizens of Macedonia who have worked tirelessly for the path of reform leading to the final Euro-Atlantic integration.
I am very pleased that it was also possible to establish an EU consensus that made these Council conclusions possible.
That was not easy in Brussels. From the very beginning, the Federal Government has emphatically campaigned for a strong positive signal to Macedonia.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The rest of the way will not be easy and it will sometimes be painful. There will be no automatism. The Council will decide in June 2019 on whether enlargement accession negotiations will actually be taken into account, taking into account further progress on reform.
But one thing is clear:
The EU perspective for Macedonia is true and it is real. At the same time, the condition-based approach of the enlargement process has become clear. The candidate countries still have some conditions that are important to us.
Macedonia has implemented impressive reforms over the past year.
In particular, the historic agreement in the name dispute with Greece is a huge opportunity for further rapprochement with the EU and for stability throughout the region.
I think that the conditions set by the European Council do not surprise your government, as they have already been made clear in the urgent priorities of the last Priebe report. This concerns the judicial reform in particular, the administrative reform, and the fight against corruption and organized crime.
The Council expects that 2019 will be successful and, by the end of 2019, negotiations will actually start. And I am sure that they will be able to continue the reform course focused on political pressure from inside and outside.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The positive signal from Brussels is also of the utmost importance for the successful implementation of the historical agreement between Skopje and Athens on the name issue. For the population in Macedonia, which will vote on the treaty in a referendum, it is now clear that the agreement on the name issue and the concrete EU perspective are inextricably linked“.
