Everything is in Macedonian citizens’ Hands, says Commissioner Hahn

The EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, is adamant that everything is in the Macedonian citizens’ hands – whether they want to bring back the country to the isolation it exited difficultly or see it become part of the Euro-Atlantic structures. In his view, there is no plan B. “I think all of us worked hard in the past several years to bring back your country on the right path. This was achieved. The open bilateral issues were resolved or approached the appropriate way,” he said on Friday, adding that it was now up to citizens to resolve them. Hahn made the statements on the sidelines of the informal meeting of Western Balkan PMs in Durres, Albania. According to the Albanian, Kosovan and Montenegrin PMs, Edi Rama, Ramush Haradinaj and Dusko Markovic, respectively, there is serious progress in the relations. Political dialogue and trust exists, which is reflected through the signed Macedonia-Greece name deal. In their view, increasing economic cooperation is never enough because that makes the region’s power grow. There is potential, especially when it comes to the energy sector, they agreed. PM Zoran Zaev, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Zvizdic, and Serbia’s PM, Ana Brnabic, didn’t attend the informal meeting. Macedonia’s government said Zaev hadn’t gone because of the bad meteorological conditions and the carried out security assessment. Despite that, he expressed support for such meetings, saying that that’s how cooperation in the region was strengthened.