Today, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia responsible for European Affairs, Dr. Fatmir Besimi, realized a meeting with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade responsible for the Republic of Macedonia, H. E. Nils Ragnar Kamsvåg, who paid a visit to the Republic of Macedonia.

At the meeting, the interlocutors agreed that the European integration is a key for the internal and regional integration. The status-quo situation is not sustainable and thus it is necessary for the Republic of Macedonia to move to the next step of the process, i.e. start of the accession negotiations. It will be an added value towards further promotion of reforms and overcoming the unresolved issues with the neighbours.
The Deputy Prime Minister Besimi informed about the current state of affairs of the European integration process of the Republic of Macedonia, receiving the fifth consecutive European Commission recommendation for opening the accession negotiations and the expectations from the Council of EU in December. In that direction, a special emphasis was put to the efforts made towards strengthening the rule of law, promotion of good neighbourly relations and overcoming the unresolved issues with the Republic of Greece and Bulgaria, the freedom of expression, the political dialogue, the judiciary reform, election reforms and promotion of inter-ethnic dialogue and integration.

The interlocutors discussed further about the 10 year project cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and the Kingdom of Norway, within which projects in numerous significant areas have been realized.

The mutual evaluation of the Secretariat for European Affairs and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that the project cooperation is more than successful, which is shown through the actual results achieved during this period, thus the interlocutors discussed about the interest and the preparedness of both institutions this cooperation to continue in the period to come as well.