Head of the European diplomacy Joseph Borrell this morning met with his Macedonian counterpart Bujar Osmani. Borrell at a press conference today said again that the start of the negotiations with Skopje and Tirana are crucial for the credibility of the EU.
This was a topic of conversation also between the EU foreign ministers at the regular meeting, which Borrell chaired today.
-We would like for the first intergovernmental conference with Albania and North Macedonia to be held as soon as possible, with hope that it will be during this EU presidency, by the end of this year, because if we do not do so, it will have a negative impact on the credibility of the EU in the entire region, stated Borrell in his introductory speech following the EU foreign affairs ministerial meeting today.
The ministers also spoke about how to involve the countries of the region in the EU foreign affairs ministerial meetings.
-We need concrete actions and we want to involve them in our foreign policy discussions, for them to join the processes of the Council of Foreign Affairs, stated the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The goal of this measure is for the countries of the region to be closely familiarized with the EU foreign policy in order to adopt it.
As a reminder, harmonization of the candidate countries with EU foreign policy is one of the conditions for membership. North Macedonia is harmonized 95 percent. Serbia notes the worst result.
-To be able to push harmonization, we need to create space for mutual understanding and sharing of analyses, they do not have to be blindly harmonized, they should have information on our discussions on foreign policy and closely cooperate with us, take part in talks with the Council of Foreign Affairs in order to understand our view of the world, said Borrell.
Replying to a question from MIA whether he shares the opinion that a new war in the Balkans is possible, Borrell said “one should not provoke it”.
-The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is very unstable, some leaders are using separatist and nationalist rhetoric. Bosnia and Herzegovina must remain united, it is a singly country and any attempt for divisions and creating new entities will be a source of problems and unrest and it has to be avoided so that it does not come to what you say (war), it has to be cut off at the root, said the Head of the European diplomacy.
He added that he also hopes that by the end of the year a new round of talks will be able to be held between Belgrade and Pristina, where tensions are also high. Borrell announced that he has sent invitations to the two countries.
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
