German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth, who chairs Tuesday’s EU General Affairs Council, said he would include enlargement on the meeting’s agenda despite Bulgaria’s veto, reports Deutsche Welle.
Speaking ahead of the virtual meeting of EU affairs ministers, Roth said he would inform his colleagues about the enlargement process with North Macedonia and Albania. “In the beginning of the year, we decided to open negotiations with the two countries. The EU’s main interest is the opening of negotiations as soon as possible with the holding of intergovernmental conference,” he said.
The German Minister said he hoped that all member countries would approve the goal and be prepared to meeting it pragmatically.
Enlargement, Roth stressed referring to Bulgaria’s blockade of the process, shouldn’t be held hostage by bilateral issues of certain member countries.
PM Zoran Zaev on Monday said he didn’t expect any good news from today’s EU ministerial meeting. Both Zaev and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said they hoped that a compromise could be found in the coming period before the opening of negotiations was approved in December.
The Bulgarian government has announced its plans to veto the opening of EU negotiations with North Macedonia. Its position was reaffirmed earlier by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deutsche Welle reports.
