North Macedonia’s European perspectives, good-neighborly relations, regional initiatives, expectations in the coming period and the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue were in the focus of Friday’s video-meeting of Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani with Miroslav Lajčák, EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues.

FM Osmani said North Macedonia highly values the role that the EU has assigned to Ambassador Lajčák as mediator in the dialogue and other regional issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.

As immediate neighbors of Kosovo and Serbia, we have interest in the success of the EU-mediated dialogue. Approximation of positions and normalization of bilateral relations will represent an enormous investment in the stabilization and Europeanization of the whole region, said Osmani.

Interlocutors also discussed North Macedonia’s European perspectives, good-neighborly relations, regional initiatives, and expectations in the coming period.

“I have just returned from an exceptionally successful visit to Brussels and meetings with EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi. We are expecting the European Commission’s Progress Report and the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans. On the domestic front, we are committed to reforms with a focus on the rule of law and finalization of the political and administrative-technical preparations for the start of the accession negotiations by the end of the year,” Osmani told Lajčák.

Interlocutors agreed that holding of the first intergovernmental conference by the end of the year is important not only for North Macedonia but also for the region, because it reaffirms the continuation of EU’s enlargement policy and demonstrates that real investment in reforms and good-neighborly relations results in a better future for citizens, reads the press release.