Deputy PM for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov said Tuesday that he expected Portuguese EU presidency to intensify its engagement in the coming days in order for holding of the first intergovernmental conference with North Macedonia.
“Contacts were made at different levels. In the coming days, we expect Portuguese EU presidency to intensify its engagement that is willing to achieve this mutual success and they are interested in completing the work started by the German EU presidency. Given that the activities from there are not completely publicly announced, I think I should not go into more detail, but the public should know that we expect intensified engagement of the Portuguese presidency,” Dimitrov said.
Dimitrov announced that meetings will follow in the coming days and that we must not stop hoping.
“It is true that the interim government is a challenge, but then elections are to be held in our country, other elections in the neighbours, and also elections in large EU member states. It is very important to have a breakthrough, it is very important for the EU to maintain the trust that the EU is serious when it says that we will be part of Europe,” Dimitrov stressed.
With reference to whether Greece can offer assistance in resolving the problem with Bulgaria, Dimitrov said that all member states can help us, but the most natural situation is when our biggest supporters will be our neighbours.
“Both Greece and Bulgaria have the greatest interest in our European story to be successful and they will have a direct benefit in some way just being our neighbours. I think it is important also Greece to be one of the countries that will strongly support the holding the first intergovernmental conference kick-starting accession talks,” Dimitrov said.
