North Macedonia's EU perspective not under question: German FM

Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-14 04:46:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video PlayerClose

SKOPJE, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- German minister for foreign affairs Heiko Maas said here on Wednesday that the accession perspective of North Macedonia for becoming a European Union (EU) member has never been under question despite the red light for start of the negotiation given by the European Council in October.

"We have to open the EU door to those who succeeded in reaching hard compromises with the neighbors and started long term reforms. No one in EU puts the accession perspective of North Macedonia in question," Maas said at a joint news conference with his counterpart of North Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov.

Maas is on an official visit to North Macedonia.

For his part, Dimitrov said the visit is a clear message that Germany supports North Macedonia in its EU aspirations.

"We as a state have unfinished business and we talked about the upcoming efforts so we as well as EU will succeed. As much as we have interest to be part of EU, EU also has interest for us to become part of it," Dimitrov said.

He underlined that the bilateral relations between the two countries are excellent, adding that this year the trade between Germany and North Macedonia will reach over 4 billion euros (4.4 billion U.S. dollars).

North Macedonia has been EU candidate country since 2005.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011105091385528281