The Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in charge of European Affairs, Fatmir Besimi, PhD, has participated in the Informal meeting of ministers and state secretaries for European affairs, organised by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of EU.

At the meeting, the Presidency took the opportunity to present its programme and priorities. The presentation was followed up by an exchange of views on the main issues that the European Union is facing with and is going to face with in the second half of 2015.

The Deputy Prime Minister Besimi in his address expressed his belief that the Luxembourg Presidency, through an open approach, which aims at putting the citizens and their needs at the heart of its initiatives, will manage to provide a consistent implementation of the planned priorities, which will contribute to the process of building a strong Europe, based on European values and principles.

In his address, the Deputy Prime Minister Besimi stressed the necessity of the European integration of the countries of the Western Balkans as a unique guarantee for stability and prosperity in the region. In this regard, he stressed the expectation that the Luxembourg Presidency despite the implementation of the other priorities, will give more active support in the implementation of the priority - Strengthening the EU’s presence on the global stage, which will be presented with the consensual adoption of the annual conclusions on enlargement in December and will contribute to the European integration of the region.

I would like to use the opportunity to show appreciation to the European Union, especially to the Commissioner Hahn, for their involvement and fully support of Macedonia, in terms of reaching an agreement by the political parties that put an end to the political crisis, which presented an obstacle on the way to the European integration of the Republic of Macedonia. The Government of the Repubblic of Macedonia has seriously noted the remarks, recommendations and reports provided by EU and, based on it, prepared a plan of activities for implementation of the urgent reform priorities agreed by all political parties, a plan that defines our future activities in order to achieve results – underlined Besimi.

At the end of his address, the Deputy Prime Minister Besimi, once again stressed the importance of accession of the Republic of Macedonia into the European Union as soon as possible and the expectation of continued and enhanced support by the European institutions and Member States. We expect that the progress will be properly evaluated in the conclusions of the Council of the EU in December and the Republic of Macedonia will receive another positive recommendation to start the negotiations.

On the margines of the informal meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister Besimi had several bilateral meetings within which he met with Mr. Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, Mr. Robert de Groot, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Mr. Martin Kotthaus, Director-General of European Affairs within the MFA of the FR of Germany. The recent events in the country and the efforts that the Government of the Republic of Macedonia makes towards the European integration of the country were discussed at the meetings.