Baumgartner: No Deadlines for Accession Talks with North Macedonia

French Ambassador to North Macedonia Cyrille Baumgartner said on Thursday that France will apply a constructive approach towards the enlargement process. Baumgartner presented in the Parliament of North Macedonia the priorities of the French presidency over EU, at the session of the National Council on Euro-Integration (NSEI). “When it comes to the enlargement, there are no concrete deadlines for now, because the organisation of the first inter-governmental conference will mark the start of the accession negotiations, hence we cannot determine a precise date for this at the moment. The French presidency will do all in its possibilities for your country to achieve progress and start the accession talks as soon as possible,” Baumgartner said. Outgoing Deputy PM for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov also addressed the session, voicing hope that under the auspices of the French EU presidency there will be progress in the EU-integration process for North Macedonia. “The Macedonian case is definitely the most drastic and most difficult test for the credibility of the EU so far, so both the success and the failure of this process would be mutual and shared by us, Bulgaria, and the EU,” Dimitrov said. EU Ambassador David Geer said that the process of Europeisation and the implementation of reforms are very useful for the country, and thanked Dimitrov for the good cooperation in these segments so far.