The American President, Joe Biden, has welcomed the opening of negotiations between Albania and North Macedonia for membership in the European Union.
This is what the White House said on Tuesday, considering this decision as an important step of the European bloc towards the integration of the Western Balkans into the Euro-Atlantic community.
“At a time when Russia has destroyed the peace in Europe, it is more important than ever to support the aspirations for a united, free and peaceful Europe. A democratic, secure and successful Western Balkans continues to remain essential to this vision”, said the statement published by the White House.
According to the statement, the steps taken by the EU, Albania and North Macedonia should serve as an inspiration for all countries aiming for the European bloc in the region, so as to increase commitment and strengthen democracies.
Albania and North Macedonia officially opened negotiations for membership in the European Union on Tuesday.
The first intergovernmental conferences with each country were held at the EU headquarters in Brussels.
The President of the European Commission, Urusla von der Leyen, has considered this moment as historic and has added that both countries have carried out the necessary reforms to start negotiations for membership in the bloc.
The opening of talks on Skopje and Tirana comes after on July 16, the Macedonian Parliament approved a French proposal that enabled the removal of Bulgaria’s veto on the start of talks with Skopje.
However, the opening of the talks on Tuesday in Brussels is “symbolic”, as the real talks or those on the EU chapters will start only after North Macedonia changes its Constitution to include Bulgarians as equal peoples. other.
This was also said by the Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, after signing the protocol with the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in office, Teodora Gençovska.
North Macedonia received candidate state status in 2005. In 2009, the European Commission recommended the opening of membership negotiations, provided the country resolved its name dispute with neighboring Greece.
After the resolution of the name issue in 2018, the initiation of the process was initially decided by France, which requested a change in the methodology in the accession negotiations. In the end, Bulgaria blocked the negotiations, making the opening of the process conditional on the resolution of the dispute over language and history.
Albania received candidate status in 2014 and since 2018 there has been a recommendation to start negotiations. However, Tirana was included in the same package as Skopje, and had to wait for North Macedonia and Bulgaria to come to terms with their differences.
