Thursday, 25 June 2009
PRESIDENT OF THE ASSEMBLY, MR. TRAJKO VELJANOSKI RECEIVED MR. MIROSLAV LAJCAK, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
President Veljanoski expressed satisfaction that the Slovak Republic is upgrading its diplomatic office in the Republic of Macedonia to the level of an Embassy, which is, stressed President Veljanoski, a demonstration of the positive trend in the bilateral relations between the Republic of Macedonia and the Slovak Republic, and in that context of the good cooperation between the two Parliaments. Speaking of the Macedonia's strategic goals - integration in the European and Euro-Atlantic structures, the President of the Assembly underlined that despite the well-known events in Bucharest, Macedonia continues its active participation in the peace missions throughout the world, as it feels responsibility for the world peace as an indivisible category.
'Concerning Macedonia's EU accession, we continue the reforms aimed at full harmonisation of our national legislation with the EU acquis, primarily for the sake of our citizens and business community, in order to ensure the same quality of living and working conditions available to the EU citizens and companies', stressed President Veljanoski. 'Therefore, continued President Veljanoski, we expect that Brussels and the European Commission will value accordingly our accomplishments and, in that context, that we will get the expected visa liberalisation for our citizens and a date for starting the negotiations for membership'.
In addition, President Veljanoski spoke of the regional cooperation to which Republic of Macedonia is strongly committed, because, he explained, the stability of the region, its development and European and Euro-Atlantic integration all depend on the regional cooperation at all levels.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Miroslav Lajcak expressed satisfaction for his visit to Republic of Macedonia as well as full support for our NATO and EU integration. 'We were working on our own integration for 12 years and it was not easy. Therefore we are today willing to share this experience with our friends in Macedonia, at all levels and institutions, so that the Macedonian citizens could enjoy the benefits that we have today', said Minister Lajcak. In that context, he congratulated the Republic of Macedonia on the full implementation of the criteria for free visa regime for its citizens and expressed confidence for quick start of negotiations for membership.