SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
The US Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer, expects Macedonia to start negotiations with the EU in October. As he says in an interview with Voice of America (VOA), his country is very hopeful that the country will get the opening of the negotiations following the European Council meeting in mid-October. “We believe that the government in North Macedonia has cleared that bar many times over. And in fact the European Commission has recommended the opening of the accession negotiations with Skopje for the last nine or 10 years in a row. So we’ve made that position clear to our European partners. We think that would be tremendously helpful. North Macedonia, of course, could help its own cause by continuing to pursue the reform agenda to implement the new law on the special prosecutor’s office. There are consultations negotiations on that issue in Skopje that are ongoing. We would like to partner with the government in North Macedonia in support of the reform agenda. We’d like to help that country move forward. We’re also hopeful that North Macedonia will move forward quickly on the NATO track and that we can look to bringing North Macedonia in as the 30th member of NATO. Ideally as early as December,” Palmer points out.
